


A Changed Heart

by The_Stained_Glass_Dragon



Series: Acceptance [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Marvel Cinematic Universe - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-11
Updated: 2016-10-26
Packaged: 2018-02-17 01:03:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 31,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2291240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Stained_Glass_Dragon/pseuds/The_Stained_Glass_Dragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cassidy is a sassy young woman with a troubled past.  She didn't want to ever find love again and tried to push aside feelings until she met him.  Both conflicted by their past they learn to become friends and change hearts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. It's the end of the world as we know it

**Author's Note:**

> Notes: Thank you for reading my story! My name is Jean and my best friend Sarah AKA Stained Glass Dragon is posting this on her profile because I don’t have one yet. She is awesome! She is also the one I’m dedicating this story too! Without her I am afraid there wouldn't be a story because she was my inspiration to write one, not only that, but she was my editor in making A Changed Heart. With her help we have managed to make it such a better story in the long run. I am so grateful for her that I even named a Character after her in my story. I know we had our ups and downs throughout this, but in the end it only made us closer. I love you Sarah and thank you for pushing me out of my comfort zone to share my work.

The alarm woke me up from my restless sleep. I just happened to be on the morning shift and it was my first day as a rookie too. I decided to grab a quick shower to get the sleep out my bones. I then gave myself a quick look over in the mirror after getting dressed and then put my hair up in a wet bun. I then cast a final glance in the looked in mirror making sure everything was in place in case I got an inspection from my Sargent today. 

Putting the rest of my uniform on and grabbing the coffee that I had set to brew on its own, one for me and my new partner Joey. As I went out the door to meet up with him my whole demeanor changed I become quiet, stern and thoughtful as I prepared myself mentally for whatever the day was going to bring. Little did I know that it was going to be an invasion of a crazy god from a different world. I grabbed my cap and badge and ran down stairs out of the apartment building hoping I secretly wouldn't run into my family on the way out. 

 

Too late, my mind thought as I finished the last flight of stairs and I saw my mother hovering at the bottom holding a paper sack out as if it was my first day of school. I cursed under my breath and walked up to my mother. 

"Cassidy, I thought you might be hungry so I made you some muffins to share with Joey.” 

“ Mother, how many times must I tell you I can take care of myself. Just because I still live in the same building doesn't mean you have to watch me 24/7.

" She rolled her eyes and handed me the bag "Just be safe please Cas." 

"I'll try mom but I make no promises." I grabbed the bag from her kissed her cheek and walked out the doors to the police car parked out front.

 

"Good morning rookie." Joey said.

"Why do I even try to be nice to you when you got nothing but rookie and boot jokes for me. I think I'll just dump out this hot cup of coffee and keep the fresh baked muffins for myself." 

"Now hold on a minute. What kind of muffins and is the coffee black?"

"Call us in and I'll tell you."

"Fine," He said as he grabbed the radio. "Dispatch this is officer McCumber and Officer Martin reporting for duty 55 check.

A muffled voice came on the radio to tell the others that our car was now on duty. "This is home base acknowledging that bravo 711 is on duty."

"Thank you Joey," I said. "The muffins are peanut butter banana with toasted almonds on top. My mom owns a bakery." I said answering the look of surprise on Joey's face. Taking a bite of the muffin he started the car and I couldn't suppress 

"I thought you said your folks own the building?"

"They do my, dad owns the building and my mom own and runs the bakery." I said handing him a muffin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

The morning seemed to drag on and linger, a few speeding tickets and traffic violations and many hours of driving around the city doing nothing but sit next to my partner keeping a watchful eye out for trouble. 

"Today's really quiet for your first day Cas. You’re lucky. On my first day I got called to a hostage situation. Let's hope we don't get any of those huh?"

"How about let’s not and say we did" I said a little bored and sassy at the same time. "Can we go on break to eat an early lunch?"

"I’d say that now would be a good time for it since things seem to be like a ghost town. What do you want kid?"

"Funny you should ask. My mother also packed us sandwiches." I answered Joey's questioning look as I told him what kind. "Freshly baked ciabatta bread, a mayonnaise mixed with horse radish spread, roast beef for meat, and finally chopped Greek olives and pickled red peppers. All mashed together for 3 hours to really get the flavors."

"Wow, if I get food like this all the time I'll outgrow this uniform fast. Tell you what after we eat this I'll let you drive Cas."

"Really?" I said surprised.

"Yes now let me eat in peace."

We laughed and ate the rest of our food in silence. When lunch was over I got a turn at the wheel just as Joey promised. I called into to dispatch to let them know we were back on duty making the rounds towards the new Stark building. I was driving up one of the main roads facing the Stark tower when I had saw the flash of blue light aim for the sky and a portal opened with a small platoon of UFO's coming through. 

I was so stunned, but I knew I had to call it in. I grabbed the car radio with my hands trembling like crazy as I tried to come across the radio calm. "Dispatch this is officer Martin Code 5 at the Stark building." I said a little shaky because I was scared.

"Affirmative, Officer Martin 10-97 requesting 11-99."

"Hit the lights kid, said Joey." 

As I turned on the lights for the first time a thrill rushed through my body, as I made my way to the Stark building the excitement of the moment was replaced with a sense of dread as I saw how many of the aliens were coming through. Just like out a bad like a sci-fi movie, it seemed as if the sky had been ripped apart into space. Through the hole came a creature from a different world or was it a ship? Either way it was a whale like creature crossed with a junkyard. I was so stunned I had to pull over because I was overwhelmed with what I just witnessed. I looked at Joey to see if he had any advice on the matter, but he sat there and looked as if he was frozen in time. He quickly shook himself out of it and looked at me.

"Well, let's meet up with the rest of the unit and see what the captain says. Let’s see how you can handle driving under this kind of stress Cas."

I had to compose myself and move on like Joey said. We needed to get with our unit and think of a plan. On the outside I tried to look as calm as possible on the inside I was freaking out worried about friends and family. My main priority was protecting the innocent and following orders. By that time the aliens had already started their assault. Why did I have this eerie feeling it was just the warm up? I got to our group and exited the car. We had created some sort of circle of cars and started to shoot at the invaders. 

"We don't need to shot off warning shots this is an aggressive assault people. Open fire" said the Sargent with the cap.

"Cas, stay low behind the car door like me" Joey ordered.

I crouched lower to the ground and opened fire at the aliens that kept coming from the sky to our area. Nothing but explosions and chaos surrounded us and things were getting worse when I saw a man in a red, white, and blue outfit jump out of nowhere onto one of the cars in front of us. I recognized him from the stories my grandmother would tell me about World War II, it was fricking Captain America!

There was a big explosion behind him that shook the ground. The Captain looked at the officer in charge and said "You need men in these buildings. There are people inside and they're going to be running right into the line of fire. You take them to the basements, or through the subway. You keep them off the streets. I need a perimeter as far back as 39th."

He looked at the Captain and said, “Why the hell should I take orders from you?" 

The next minute I watched in amazement as the Captain then blocks a blast with his shield, bats one of the invaders, away with it, then blocks a point blank assault, punches another in the face, he grabs one of their weapons and then punches the aliens, flinging it across the street.

The Police Sergeant grabs his radio pinned on his shirt and says. "I need men in those buildings. Lead the people down and away from the streets. We're going to set up a perimeter all the way down 39th Street." When he got off of it he looked around and said "All right who wants to volunteer and try their weapons out?"

"I will" I said stepping forward. 

Everyone just looked at me for a brief moment as if I were crazy. I got the weapon off of one of the aliens and slipped it on to my own arm. They were one of those weapons that looked heavy to hold but because there technology was out of this world, it was surprisingly light. I pointed it at one of the aliens and pulled the leaver inside that I hoped would make the thing work and it did. 

"Cas, how do you get that thing to work?" asked Joey.

It's simple enough if anyone wants me to show them. There's a trigger mechanism inside that you just need to grip on." I said as I hit another one.

"I think you got guts rookie. There is no way in hell I am touching one of those things. It all seems a little to demonic to me." said another officer. 

Others seemed to agree with him and I didn't blame them. I just hoped I would be able to last the rest of the day without getting sick, but there was a few that also grabbed the guns and looked at me for instructions.

"Where the handle is there is a trigger right above it, all you need to do is pull it towards you." I said to the small group. "Give it a try before we split up and move on."

They group gave their guns a try and then Joey gave commands on what streets we should take as we head up to 39th. Joey ended with us last. "Martin and I will head down this street. Leave the cars here for now and start getting civilians to safety. Move out" said Joey

I followed my partner towards 39th grabbing people as I went and sending them into buildings. Some of the civilians I had saved with the gun where afraid of me others didn't seem to care they just wanted to live. I was thankful I didn't have to reload the thing because it had an endless supply of power. 

"I really like this thing Joey you should grab one."

"No thanks I think I'll be a little old fashioned."

"Suit yourself" I said running up to a car that was on its side. "Holy shit! Joey give me a hand over here there's people trapped inside."

"I'll get them out you cover me."

"Got it."

Joey helped the unconscious mother out of the car door and set her out of harm’s way. Then looked at the little boy in the back and said "I can't get the back door to open you need to ether climb into the front and go out the front door or I can smash the glass and you can come out the back."

"I am scared" he cried out.

"I know you are son, but you can be brave and do this. Tell me who your favorite hero is?"

"I like Spider-man he saved me once."

"Pretend your Spider-man right now and let’s get you out of this car and get you safe." The boy must have unbuckled and started climbing towards the front seat because I heard Joey say next. " That's it come to me Spider-man you can do this. Got you, now let’s get you and your mom safe."

By that time the mother had woken up not really sure of her surroundings. 

"Ma'am" I said. "My name is Officer Martin I am going to help you and your son get into the building across the street, but I need you to keep your head low and follow me as close as you can. Do you understand?" 

The woman nodded her head and followed us to a building where I had to shot at a glider that got to close to the building we were entering. 

We got into the entrance and the woman looked at us and said. "Thank you for saving my son and I."

"You’re welcome stay inside please until you hear an all clear ok?"

"We will Officer" said the woman.

We moved on to 39th St which took a while because we were saving people on the way and checking buildings as we ran by. I made a silent prayer for my family’s safety because of the family we just helped. I had to snap my mind back on task and get other people safe as well. Joey and I kept getting people out of cars, checking pulses, and getting groups into stable buildings. At one point I looked up into the sky again wishing I hadn't because I saw a whole army come out of the portal into the city. We had just got another group of people when they pointed and screamed in terror at the portal. A small part of me waited to join them.

"Get inside before the next wave of attack comes by" I ordered.

Whatever you do I told myself don't start freaking out now. I went down the steps to join my partner who was covering my back. I could see that one of their cruisers was heading down the street that we were on and had a wild notion. I waited for the opportune moment of when to strike and hit the glider down just as I planned. I took out the alien that had survived and walked up to the cruiser. 

"Don't tell me you think you can fly this thing Cas? Asked Joey"

I took a look at it and said. "I hope so, looks simple enough. If I can figure out this weapon. I am sure I can maneuver that."

"Are you out of your fucking mind?"

I shook my head and got on the cruiser. I held onto the bars that seemed to control it and decided to be a little gentle with them. The controls were nearly out of my reach, but I managed to hold them, if I stood on the balls of my feet. I was right to think that it need a gentle touch as it started flying through the air. I felt a surge of energy and excitement run threw my body as I started to soar in the air. It felt like I was gliding on a jet sky without the water.

Now all I needed to figure out was how to shot the darn thing. I moved my hands around on the handles. It must have looked odd from anyone else's point of few seeing a girl stroking bars like it was a cat. Finally, out came the laser or whatever you wanted to call the blue light and hit an oncoming glider. This thing moves fast. Despite everything that was going on this was a lot of fun. I decided to head up towards 39th St. As I was flying past people they either looked amazed of tariffed that I could fly. I just kept shooting at the E.T's, it got things moving more quickly to 39th St. At one point I looked behind me and noticed my partner wasn't there. I need to double back. I found him easy enough with the smaller group then before.

"Where are the others?" I asked hovering over Joey.

"They went down into the subway tunnel. The entrance was blasted down by one of those things. I called out to them, but they couldn't hear me. I got this gut feeling that they made it. Land your little plane and help me get the rest behind the barricade."

 

I landed the chariot to help get the others to safety. We got them behind the barricade at 39th St and lead them to an old bunker in a building. 

Several minutes later the military finally came into to help with the battle. They had my partner and I join one of their units because of our ability to use the E.T's own guns against them. I showed the unit how to use the weapons and we headed up the street where most of the battle was taking place. The jeep wasn't smooth like the glider, but I still got to use the gun on the invaders. 

We went up to Time Square where there was an assault team opening fire on another military group. Our squad came to aide them in the battle which seemed to go on forever as we fought on. I noticed a big flash in the sky, so I looked up once more to see something small falling from it and the portal slowly closing. I could see for a brief moment that in the other dimension the world in it was exploding. Then the portal closed with only the small object in the sky falling to the ground.

I am not sure what happened up there, but I noticed as soon as it the explosion happened everything thing stopped as if it was unplugged from its main power source. The aliens and the craft's just fell all around us like dead bugs. We had to duck and swerve our way sound to find a secure place to cover until it was over, but by the time we got there things became quite. The battle is over, I sighed from relief put down the alien gun, threw up and blacked out.


	2. Decisions

As I slowly regained consciousness the smell of antiseptic and the bleep of machinery greeted my senses. When my eyes finally obeyed my command to open I saw that I was in the back of an ambulance. The concerned look of the paramedic standing over me caused my stomach to flop, why am I in an ambulance in the first place my mind asked.

Seeing the panic in my eyes the male paramedic said "It's okay you just passed out."

While the paramedic was talking to me I noticed Joey outside looking worried, at the prompting of the paramedic. Joey came into the vehicle and sat on the bench across from the flat bed.

"How you doing rookie?"

"I'm fine." I said pulling of the mask, "I thought I told you not to call me rookie Joe."

Chuckling Joey said "Yeah I wouldn't want to miss out on any more of your mom's muffins."

"Shit! I thought to myself, "Joey my family, are they alright?" I said sitting up and starting to panic and worry about the apartment and the bakery being destroyed.

"Your family is okay and your building is still up."

I sighed with relief. "So what do we do now?"

"We clean up and build again, but those of us on our shift get some rest until tomorrow morning. Chiefs orders because we've already done enough for one day, but keep the phone close by in case there's a change in plans." 

He then looked at the medic and said "Is she clear to leave now."

He looked at me and then my partner and said "Yes, you may go now, just take it easy there ma'am."

I nodded my head to the paramedic and then left the ambulance with Joey at my side. We headed to where our patrol car was parked, which by some was miracle was still in one piece, but had rubble and scorch marks on it. Thankfully the windows weren't broken and the car even started for us and we started to head to my building. It was sad driving home seeing our beloved city in ruins but there was still life, people helping others and things being picked up.

"Jeez what a mess," sorrow filling my voice “Who was behind the attack?"

"Word on the street is that it was some whack job who wants world domination. Other than that there's not much to tell kid. I think the people who stopped this are going to keep a lot of secrets."

We drove the remainder of the ride in complete silence because we were to speechless to say anything else. Joey had to really maneuver through streets because of all the closed ones and debris littered others. Finally I was home. I was so glad to see that nothing got down this far, thanking Joe I got out of the car and went into the building. I was welcomed by my mom, dad and dinner I ate two bites of it and knew I couldn't keep it down. So I excused myself and went up to my own place instead. I took off all my cloths and made sure to put all my gear and weapons away. I collapsed on my bed, buried myself under my covers with only my night shirt on. I fell asleep surprisingly fast considering what happened that day and drifted off to a deep sleep.

Bad boys, bad boys. What'cha gonna do? What'cha gonna do when they come for you? Bad boys, bad boys? I was woken up the next morning by my ring tone for work. The irony was lost on me as I was pulled too soon from my much needed sleep.

"Hello?"

"Officer Martin, the Captain says to get yourself down to the station, there’s someone here who wants to talk with you," said one of the female desk officers. 

"Yeah ok give me an hour or so to get ready and over there."

"He says you don't need to put on a uniform just get down here."

It must have been important for them to ask me to come down to the station this early in the morning. I got dressed in black slacks and a purple button up shirt. I pinned my hair up and then put shoes on. As I grabbed my badge, gun and purse I walked out the door, I hailed a taxi and gave the address for my precinct. It took about 15 minutes, but because I was so exhausted it felt much longer. I was nervous and feeling sick again; if I got too stressed out I would throw up again. When the taxi finally got there I paid the driver and walked in. Shelly was at the front desk this morning and looked up at me as I walked in.

"Officer Martin, the Captain wants you in the interrogation room."

I turned pale and swallowed down the acid that was gathering at the back of my throat threatening to come out. "Which one?" I managed to squeak out.

"Interrogation room B." 

I stopped at the water fountain to drink some cool water before I entered into the small room with no windows to the outside world, just a table, two chairs, and a one way mirror. 

“What the hell did I do? I kept thinking to myself? What the fuck is going on?”

I took the chair facing the mirror and the door that led into the one of the main offices, so that way I could see who came in. I grabbed the garbage can and puked up the water that refused to stay in my anxious stomach. I was thankful I had decided to forgo breakfast this morning. As I was about to wipe my mouth a man's hand with a very expensive looking handkerchief came close to my face.

“Thanks" I said wiping off my mouth. 

I got off of the floor to see who it was and did a double take. I saw an average height man with brown hair and goatee. He was wearing an expensive suit. I recognized him immediately. 

"Tony Stark?" I asked and he nodded.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I said trying to give back the handkerchief, but he waved his hand away indicating that he didn't want it back. I tossed it in the trashcan not really wanting to keep it. 

"Take a seat Ms. Martin and I'll tell you."

"Name's Cassidy if you don't mind." I said a little too harsh. 

Why did I feel the urge to punch him? What was it about this guy that made me feel uncomfortable? Maybe it was the fact I didn't trust guys unless I knew them well or had to work with them. He sat down in the other chair across from me and just smirked. The vibe of egotistic jerk flowed through the air. I secretly wondered how everything could fit in one room.

"S.H.E.I.L.D. has an interest in you because of your actions yesterday against the Chitauri." He said getting straight to the point.

"What are you talking about?"

"The guns you acquired and the ship that you managed to fly."

"Well yah I figured as much, what I meant to say was what are S.H.E.I.L.D. and the Chitauri?"

"S.H.E.I.L.D. is a secret organization that deals with anything out of this world like the Chitauri you fought yesterday. You know the gray looking human fish things that were attacking Manhattan."

"It seems to ring the bell." I said sarcastically.

Tony just rolled his eyes and looked up at the ceiling as if to say why me? 

"S.H.E.I.L.D. wants you to work for them, because you managed to use their weapons and ride their chariot. Only one other person could fly it and she said that you started out way better than she did."

"And she and you guys all know this how?"

"Someone took a video tape of it and posted it on YouTube. One of our agents was watching it and I walked by his station when he was. I made the guy show me again because I didn't see it from the beginning. We seemed to gather a small group of people and that got Director Fury's attention. He wanted to bring you in to see what else you can do."

"But you’re the weapons expert not me."

"That is true, but I didn't spend most of my time yesterday fighting off the Chitauri with their own weapons. I was fighting as Iron Man." He said a little smug.

"So you want me to quit my job and work for S.H.I.E.L.D.?" Tony nodded his head yes. "Can I at least think about it or is this a take it or leave it kind of offer?"

"Tell you what Cas. Mind if I call you Cas?"

"Only close friends and family get that privilege." I said irritated.

"Right, I'll give you five minutes to decide. If it where up to me I would give you more, but some people are a little impatient to wait that long. They want to know and they want to know now. I'm being the nice guy here and at least giving you five minutes." Tony said as he got up from the table and walked out of the room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I left the room with my mind made up. I went out into the main hall which had a few more interrogation rooms around it and headed towards the area with all the other officers hoping that's where Tony would be waiting for me to hear my answer. I went around the corner thinking about my training in the past. How I would not just miss Joey, but the others who graduated with me as cadets. I’d made lots of friends and memories around here and I was going to miss them all. I found Tony sitting at one of the empty desk all kicked backed and relaxed with his feet on the desk and hands behind his neck. I walked up to him and that's when my partner burst into the precinct with a worried look on his face. Relief flooded his face as soon as he saw me.

"Cas, you alright? Shelly said that you were in an interrogation room with Tony Stark. What the fuck is going on?" Joey asked.

I just hugged the tall big man. He was the only other guy I've hugged since my break-up with my last boyfriend, aside from my father and older brother who always seemed to be out of town on business.

"Joey, I've been offered a job by Tony Stark and I am going to take it." I said with tears in my eyes. I could see Tony out of the corner of my eyes looking pleased that I was saying yes.

"What!?" His voice boomed with hurt. "Why? You can't leave kid! You told me the reason you wanted to be a cop was to get scum bags off the streets. I don't think Stark is going to help you get your dream job as a detective." 

"I know Joey, but this is what I want more than anything. I can't really explain why, but truly this is what I want." I said with tears in my eyes.

"Not buying it kid." He said with doubt. "Try that again." He said crossing his arms over his chest and looking down on me.

I sighed and said "You know me to well. Janice was right in telling me you would be a good mentor throughout my training and a wonderful partner. My main goal was to be a detective and work beside Janice, but when she got shot and killed that dream died with her. Tony has offered me a position at SHIELD and they just don't save people, but they save the world too.

"You’re sure that this is what you want? I know you don't trust him yet."

"Yeah, because someone once told me that if someone puts a blind fold on you then you have no other choice but to trust them. You thought me that Joey and its time I start to live by those words a little instead of let my past get the better of me."

Joey sighed gave me a big hug and said. "You keep in touch with me you hear kid? And if you need anything you know the number. Better go talk to the Captain."

I looked at Tony and said "Give me another minute I've got to talk with Captain Gordon and then I'll leave with you." He nodded his head to me and I headed towards the Captain's office. I knocked on his door waited for the ok to come in.

"Door's open." Captain Gordon called out. I opened the door to see the slender man with thick black hair and glasses. He looked up to me from the paper work he was going through. "Martin I expected you after your meeting with Stark, so what's the answer?"

"I decided to take the job because-." I said handing in my badge and gun.

"You don't need to explain why. Stark told me he wanted you on his pay roll. I kind of hoped you wouldn't take it, but an opportunity like this doesn't come every day. I wish you luck." The Captain said stretching out his hand towards mine to shake it.

"Thanks." I said and headed out the door to find Tony. I found him just where I left him, but this time I saw a swarm of people hovering over him asking for pictures and autographs. I just shook my head in annoyance because he made it seem like we didn't really have time to do much of anything let alone pause to stroke his fast growing ego and he was just soaking up the attention that he craved. 

"Excuse me everyone," I said in my loudest voice. To my surprise people turned to look at me. "Mr. Stark has more important things to do today then stand around being worshiped."

"Sorry folks, but the lady is right. I've got to help with some of the cleanup from yesterday and I already went way past my time limit." 

All the people sighed and went to go back to work. When the crowd cleared away enough Tony and I left to go out of the building where the paparazzi and a limousine where waiting. We fought our way to the car so we could finally be on our way. In the distance I could see a helicopter picking up a chunk of junkyard whale. 

"Where are they going with the junkyard whale?"

Confused Tony looked up at the sky, laughing he answered me "That's a leviathan. They are taking pieces in for testing."

"Oh" I said hitting my hand across my forehead because I knew what that word was and what it meant. "I just called them junkyard whales."

Tony laughed harder and slid into the car. I followed after him. 

"You know what?" he said. "I think I like your name a lot better for them than mine." 

“Stark” I nearly jumped out of my seat because I didn't notice the other person in the car. Sitting across from me was a black man dressed all in black leather, kind of like he thought he belonged in the Matrix, he had a patch over his left eye. He was sitting with his arms crossed and a stern look on his face. "You realize that you nearly took 30 minutes in there. I thought I made myself perfectly clear. Go in come back out no loitering."

"I gave the girl time to think about the offer Nick."

"Time is something we don't have much of" said the man. Turning his gaze upon me he said "Welcome to SHIELD Agent Martin. I am Nick Fury, but you call me Director Fury or Sir is that clear?" He asked handing me a badge that said Cassidy Martin, Agent of S.H.E.I.L.D. and gun.

"Yes, sir. how did you know I would say yes to the job?" I asked stunned. 

"We had hoped you would accept Agent Martin." He said as the car pulled away from the curb and headed to an unknown destination. "You seem to have an instinct on how to work devices that aren't of this world and we wanted to recruit you to see what kind of knowledge you may give us based on what you've already discovered." 

"So do I get to be on the field or in an office?"

 

"For now you’re needed on the field for the procurement of alien tech. Then you'll get a room where you'll be working with Stark and Doctor Banner, to see if we can utilize them for our use."

Why did that name Banner sound really familiar to me I thought to myself. The rest of the car ride Director Fury briefed me on what happened yesterday as we drove to the location that S.H.I.L.E.D was currently cleaning up. 

"As you know Martin there was an extra-terrestrial battle in Manhattan. Stark told you that these creatures are called Chitauri. The army was led by a god from a different world called Asgard, his name is Loki. We have captured Loki and will be sending him home with his brother Thor in a few days."

"You’re talking about Norse mythology. Loki is the God of Mischief and Lies. Thor is the God of Thunder."

Fury looked at me surprised that I wasn't clueless. "You know what I am talking about." He said.

"I really got into mythology back in high-school. For some odd reason I never really got into Norse, but I know enough to understand who you’re talking about."

Fury nodded his head and continued debriefing me "What you need to do is collect some of the alien tech today, but not much I want you to start working with Banner on the function of these weapons and I want I want reporters on everything. Got it?"

"Yes, sir" I said. As the car slowed to a stop.


	3. Introductions

As the car came to a stop I noticed that we were near Stark tower. Due to the large amount of debris, I concluded that this was ground zero of the battle from yesterday. Nothing but glass, building chunks, and fallen warriors surrounded the area. I knew that I would really have to watch my step around this place. Fury got out of the car first; I sat there for a second to take in my surroundings before getting out. 

Tony looked at me and said "I'll be out in a minute I need to change into something a little more comfortable." 

As I got out of the car I expected the driver to be holding the door for us, but to my surprise it was Captain America himself!

"Ma'am" Captain said holding his hand out to me.

"Thank you Captain." I said a little shy because no one had ever done that to me before.

"You can call me Steve." He said.

"My name is Cassidy Martin." I said shaking his hand.

"Mind moving out of my way sweetheart" Tony said from in the car still.

"S-s-sorry” I stammered and moved away. 

He got out of the car with a new outfit on, a black tank-top and sweat pants, gone was the dress suit and tie. You could clearly see the white orb in the middle of his shirt glowing; he pulled some bracelets out of his pocket and put them on his wrists. 

The suits must be to keep up his image when Tony's in public, but when he's not it’s out off with the white collared shirts into something a bit more casual. “Why couldn't he just wait until he was inside a building?” I asked myself.

I saw a tall muscular blond wearing black leather pants and a dark leather sleeveless shirt, the shirt had silver crossing from one side to his body to the other stopping at his waistline. He was caring a Chitauri in a fireman's hold over to a large pile of them. That must be Thor. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed something flying towards me. I squeaked and ducked as it flew over my head. When I looked up I saw a suit of armor just form onto Tony’s body. Steve shook his head and held out his hand again to help me up.

"You could have warned the girl Stark" Steve said a little annoyed. 

"It's more fun to watch people’s reactions" he said as he walked over to an area that had already been cleared of debris. Holding his hands out to the side his palms started to glow with a white light, he was lifted off the ground and was hovering about 5ft in the air. I had seen the Ironman suit of T.V. but seeing it up close was another thing. 

Thor put the Chitauri down and walked towards us. "You must be the Midgardian that the man of iron wanted to recruit. I am Thor of Asgard."

"I am Cassidy of New York." Thor's laugh was a deep thunderous one, go figure for the god of thunder and lightning. 

"Did you send a Chitauri to headquarters, so I can study it?"

Steve and Thor looked at each other at a loss for words when another man dressed in all black leather came up to us. "We haven't done it yet, but we can send one over to headquarters if you really need one" he said. He had a bow and quiver on his back. What is it with these people and black I questioned myself?

"I am Clint Barton, some call me Hawk-eye. You don't need to tell me who you are they said that you'd come." He said nodding his head in acknowledgement. I could tell this was the kind of guy that doesn't do handshakes. "Let’s get back to work there's a lot to get done here before you have your press conference with Stark" Hawk-eye said to Steve and Thor.

"Um, I'm not really sure what I should be doing" I said.

"You should be gathering what you need and put it in that truck over there" Said a voice from behind me. I did a little jump because I didn't realize that someone was there. She was wearing a black leather suit that clung to the shape of her body. Her hair was flaming red. "So, you’re the Cassidy, the cop who could use the enemy tech and make it look easy? I am Natasha Romanoff; code name Black Widow. Come on and I'll help you gather what you need Agent Martin. Director Fury wants you in the lab as soon as possible with Dr. Banner."

I was really taken back with all of these people knowing my name and the fact that I would say yes to any of this at all. Then again they seemed like the kind of individuals who dig up your past and were really good at it. I freaked out by wondering what else they may know. For the time being none of that really mattered. What mattered was getting out of here to get the real work started. Natasha and Thor helped me load the rig with several weapons, a few Chitauri, and some of the gliders. 

"I think where good here. Now who's going to take me to base?" I asked.

Sometime during our gathering Nick Fury and the limo that we originally came in left. I really didn't notice when it happened, but I had this gut feeling that Nick was really good at sneaking around unnoticed. He probably came over see some the cleanup and give orders before going back to base. Where ever that was my mind said.

"I can take her" said an average built man with dirty blond hair dressed like he just got off the set for Men in Black. He even had the cool black glasses to complete the look.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and gathered around this man, looking at him as if he was a ghost.

Thor was the first to break the silence. "They told me my brother killed you."

"He nearly did" the man answered back. 

"Why?" Steve said a little dumbfounded.

"It was Nick's idea to get you guys motivated. I am sorry for the hurt it might have caused."

"MIGHT HAVE CAUSED?" Steve yelled and then walked off.

The poor guy who played dead looked a little hurt, so I gave him some words of encouragement. "I am sure you had a valid reason for what you did."

"She's right Coulson but, if you ever do that again I'll kill you myself" said Natasha and went after Steve.

"You ready to load up and meet the last member of The Avengers?"

"Avengers?" I said.

"Yup that's what we call everyone you just met" Coulson said as he carefully climbed into the truck.

I followed after him and got into the passenger’s seat. "I am not really sure who's on that list. Mind filling me in?"

Phil started up the truck and started to drive through cleared streets. If you could call pot holes the size of cars cleared my mind said.

"Thor is the most recent of the phalanx, after we found Steve he was asked to join too. Then there is Dr. Bruce Banner and Tony is someone we ask to help here and there, he's really not the team type." He said to my questioning look.

"So who is this Bruce Banner I keep hearing about? The name sounds really familiar, but I can't place where I've heard it before."

Phil huffed and said "Do you recall the thing that destroyed Harlem a few years ago?"

"How can I forget? There was a huge man-hunt for some scientist, but oh" I stopped realizing that Bruce Banner was the man. "Isn't he dangerous?"

"Only if you make him really angry, for the most part Banner has the Hulk under some control, but only by a little."

Mental note to self don't piss him off and be sassy, sarcastic, or rude like you can be at times. That got hard when it was that time of the month. Thankfully I dealt with that a week ago. 

I saw Phil wince in pain a little and I looked at him. "Are you ok?"

"I'll be fine. I just got stabbed in the gut the other day by a god that's all."

"Should you be driving or do I need to take over?"

"No, I got this. Fury gave me easy work to do even though he insisted I should take a few days off to properly heal, I told him there is no other place I would rather be."

I shrugged my shoulders and looked out the window to see where we were headed. We had a rough start getting out of the city with all the different work crews getting things into enough shape to start rebuilding. I could tell that we were heading to the coast of New York. When I saw the building for the first time it was quite tall and looked a bit like the Freedom tower in the city. We had to cross a secure bridge to get to our destination but, first we had to go through the checkpoint.

Phil got out of the car to show his ID to the computer at the gate, "Agent Phil Coulson and Cassidy Martin."

"Need to see the woman's credentials before I let you pass" said the computerized voice.

I jumped out of the tall truck and pulled out the ID Nick Fury had given me just that morning. As I slid the card in the slot that was on the gate, a scanner came out to confirm that I was who Agent Coulson said I was. 

"Confirmation Agent Phil Coulson and Agent Cassidy Joy Martin, you may proceed to your destination."

We got back into the truck. Phil drove us around the back to an underground garage opening up. I could see at the end of the tunnel was a man waiting. Phil came to a stop a few feet away from the brunet haired man with glasses, a purple shirt, and blue jeans on. I took a deep breath and followed after Phil who had just got out. We both got out of the car and walked towards the average height man. 

Bruce took off his glasses and started to clean them and said "I see that you’re on the mend Phil. 

"Yes, thank you for redoing my stitches." Said Phil.

"You must be Dr. Banner” I said trying to come across calm, yet on the inside all I wanted to do was run the opposite direction. I held out my hand to shake his hoping it wasn't quivering like crazy. I looked down just to make sure and to my astonishment my hand was perfectly still.

"Yes I am Dr. Banner" he said in a soft spoken voice. "Shall we get to work?"

I nodded my head and went to the back of the truck to unhitch the latch at the bottom. Other agents had to help us unload the heavy stuff because we didn't have a god from a different world to do the grunt work. I carried a couple of the weapons to the science room that was set up for Banner and I to study in. I let Phil and Bruce lead the way as I did not know my way around the building yet. We got out of the tunnel and went into this big room that could fit a large ship. Damn I thought to myself this place seems bigger on the inside. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a glass rectangular cage. I turned my head to see what was inside, it was the god of mischief himself Loki. I stopped in my tracks and dropped the weapons to the floor. Holy shit was this man gorgeous. He was wearing a black and green leather outfit that clung to his tall slender body. His hair was black and long, but I couldn't get a good look at his face because it was covered with a mask. I did however notice the sea green eyes that pierced to my very soul. Then I saw the chains around his waist, neck, and ankles. Even though Loki's face was hidden behind that mask his eyes gave away what he was thinking and at that moment in time it was a pleased smirk. I shook my head out of the apparent trance I was in picked up the things I had dropped and looked to see where Phil and Bruce had walked off to. 

"Fuck" I cursed aloud without meaning to because I had lost them.

Phil came back out of the room right in front of me that I had noticed for the first time with multiple windows around it. Was I really that star struck that I couldn't have seen a freaking room right in front of me the whole time?

"I should have warned you that the room you’re using is right next to Loki's cage."

"You think" I somehow managed to say bringing my mind back from space. I stormed off through the sliding doors and glanced back once more to look at the god, his eyes clearly following me in a mocking manner as if he knew I had liked what I saw. “Ignore him” I told myself, “Ha” my inner conscious said ” “Like you can avoid Mr. Hottie McTottie with a naughty body” “Shut-up mind.” "So" I said clapping my hands together and rubbing them, trying not to let my mind wander outside of the room to a cage. "Let’s get this show on the road shall we?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everybody who has read out work! Any kudos and comments would be appreciated... Let us know what you think.  
> I should be able to get more chapter posted this week because part one is completely written, and just needs to be edited now! So the chapters will go up as soon as The_Stained_Glass_Dragon can get them done! Thank you once again my wonderful editor TSGD! Without you this work wouldn't be possible.


	4. Night Terrors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *WARNING* There are some Rape triggers mentioned in this chapter. Read at your own risk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note* Sorry this chapter took us longer to post, but both Stained Glass Dragon and I were dealing with medical problems. Thankfully we are now both on the mend and can give you another chapter. It is the longest one to date so hopefully that makes up for some of the wait.

Trying to gather my thoughts after my glimpse of the “wanna be God of the World” I grabbed a clipboard and pen, giving my muddled mind something to focus on. I started to catalog the inventory Dr. Banner and agent Coulson were bringing in from the truck. 

“Guns over there on that table, put the chariot parts on that one,” I said pointing to another table in our huge working space. The area consisted of three long metal tables, simple in their design yet utilitarian. They were arranged along three of the greyish white walls. The entire back wall was a target range not unlike the police academy ones, I noticed several small wheeled cars with laptops, cables and equipment that I had no idea what they did on them scattered around the room.

“Put the whole chariot in the middle there please.” I said to the several grunts that had been helping. 

“Where do you want the body?” one of them asked, he was standing at the head of a medical gurney that barley contained the body of a dead Chitauri warrior. 

“Place it next to that last table over there” I said pointing to the only table not covered with anything. “Help me pull it away from the wall” I said as I motioned to the table.

“I want to make this table the autopsy area” the soldier grimaced as he helped me move the table out a few feet from the wall and then even more as we struggled to get the body off the gurney and onto the table.

“What’s wrong soldier” I said, “Don’t like touching aliens?” 

“It doesn’t bother me ma’am” he replied, “They’re just a little heavier than they look.”

With my inventory was almost complete I noticed that we had amassed far more weaponry I had first thought. The one table was practically cover in nothing but guns; as I started to organize the weapons I noticed that pieces of what was most likely armor had been mixed in as well.

“Well that explains why there is so much here” I said to myself.

As I started to move the armor pieces over to the table with the body, I noticed Dr. Banner saying good bye to Agent Coulson, “He’s leaving so soon?” I asked.

“He has other things he needs to be doing right now, like running a super top secret organization.” Dr. Banner said.

“What do we have going on here?” He asked, seeing me with the armor in my hands.

“I’m just organizing” I said. “It looks like these pieces are armor and not weaponry.” I said to answer the questioning look in Dr. Banner’s eyes.

“So what all do we have?” he asked.

“Well so far my inventory consists of 14 Guns, multiple parts that appear to be either weapons parts or parts of armor, 1 complete chariot and more parts of one, and one dead alien.” I said pointing to the sheet cover body on the far table.

“So where do we begin?” Dr. Banner asked as he donned his lab coat and motioning to another one for me, I noticed that my name had already been embroidered above one of the pockets. 

“This must have been Tony” I thought to myself, in fact as I looked around the room I got the distinct feeling that Tony Stark had designed the whole room. 

Walking over to one of the wheeled carts I opened up the laptop, I noticed the Stark Industries logo on the outside, “Yup I knew this had Stark’s hand all over it.” I said to myself.

“Why don’t we start with the body” I suggested “I don’t want that thing to stink this place up any more than it already has.” I put on the pair of goggles and brandished a scalpel remembering all the frogs I had dissected in high school, trying to keep my stomach from deciding that it wanted to be a part of the fun.

“And here I thought that was just me!” Dr. Banner joked as we began the autopsy of the alien creature.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Four hours later as we were finishing the autopsy, I noticed something that had slipped by me during my inventory. A long gold staff, almost like a spear but that had two edges instead of one. The one edge was longer than the other giving it a sort of elongated Letter “C” look to it. Both tines looked extremely sharp like you would expect them to be on a weapon. In the middle of the two tines sat a glowing blue orb that just hung there as if suspended by a wire, I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how it was staying in place.

“What is that? I asked walking over to it.

"That's Loki's scepter he used it to mind control a few of S.H.E.I.L.D's men. You met Clint I assume?"

"Let me guess he was one of Loki's minions?"

Banner gave a low chuckle and said "Yeah, but don't let him hear you say that." 

Then I noticed the briefcase sitting next to it "What's in there” I questioned pointing towards the metal briefcase.

"The Tesseract, it's an object that can send you to other worlds, Asgard being one of them. When Thor leaves to go home he'll be taking that and his brother with him. We don't need to do any more studies on it; we've got enough from watching what it can do." He said with just a little bit of malice in his voice. He grabbed a gun and walked over to the firing range, put on his safety glasses, and positioned himself in a firing stance.

"What do you mean?"

"That's what Loki used yesterday to get the army to come from their world to ours" he explained squeezing the trigger, but nothing came out.

As I walked away from the scepter I grabbed a gun and safety goggles of my own and joined Dr. Banner at the range.

"How can we get everything to start working again? Yesterday they stopped as the portal closed, I swear I saw an explosion in the other dimension" I said trying my own weapon out, but putting it back down after getting nothing as well. 

"Your conclusion is right Tony had to throw a missile that was heading to the city” DR. Banner said picking up and trying all of the guns in turn all yielding the same results. "Darn it none of them work." He said throwing it to the floor. "Now what do we do?"

I looked at Loki's scepter when an idea popped into my head. "Huh I wonder" I said aloud as I walked back to where the scepter was sitting and picked it up.

Dr. Banner’s eyes went wide with fear and he said "I wouldn't touch that if I were you. Everyone who touches it seems to have some sort of reaction to it and it doesn't always turn out well.”

I needed to reassure him before I used it. "Don't worry Dr. Banner I won't use it on you and turn you into a mindless goon." 

"When I picked it up I didn't even realize I had done it, until everyone was staring at me. Not long after that the other guy came out."

"Well then" I said touching it to one of the weapons. "I'll make sure you don't touch it." I touched the scepter to the weapon. "Nada"

"Hmm the scepter seemed to run on Loki’s thought, try thinking about what you want it to do and maybe that will power it." Said Dr. Banner

"Good idea I'll try that." I closed my eyes and put the staff back onto the weapon and thought about powering the weapon, still nothing. Giving it one more go I thought about power from the scepter flowing into the gun I pictured it in my mind like an electrical currant.

Power surged from the scepter into the weapon. I put down the scepter and picked the gun up. I walked over to the target we had to shoot at for readings. "Firing one round" I called out from force of habit when you’re a cop. I then pulled the mechanism inside and out came the blue light. "Ha it worked Dr. Banner!” I yelled overly excited.

Dr. Banner just stood there impressed with his arms folded across his chest.  
"Let's see how many times you can fire it off before it loses power."

Luckily I was able to get a few blast before it died on me, but I didn't see where the readings where printing out. “Dr. Banner I needed to take a look at the data.”

"If you’re looking for the print out of the results you have to go into the other room where Loki is." He said.

"You got to be kidding me” I whined. I could tell on the look on his face that he was serious. 

Damn it my mind thought as I left the room going through the sliding glass doors into the other room. I did my best to ignore Loki, which isn't easy when everything around you and Loki is thick glass; I so desperately wanted to glance at the handsome god trapped in the rectangular room. It had a door that lead into a small hallway looking room with another door. I didn't really pay attention the first time I saw the room what was in there with him, but this time I could see a small bed on the floor to sleep on in the corner. In the middle was a small toilette. I blushed thinking about coming across the man when he's going to the bathroom, seeing more of that ivory silky looking skin. Despite myself I gave in and looked at Loki, once again those eyes watching every move I made as I crossed to the printer. I wasn't watching where I was going when my foot meet coffee table in front of a comfy couch. Gravity took over the rest and I crashed into the floor. I didn't hear Dr. Banner come out of the room behind me or the fact that Tony, Steve, and Thor had got back from today's task and just entered as well. A familiar hand came up to my face as I was starting to pick myself up off of the floor.

"Are you alright miss" asked Steve helping me up.

I laughed and said "Gravity can be really heartless at times. I am fine thank you for helping me up for the third time today. I was coming out here to collect the data and wasn't really watching where I was going. I thought you guys had some sort of engagement with Tony?"

"We do. We just had to grab the last member of the team and possibly some dinner before we head over" said Tony.

"I really don't think it's a good idea for me to do that. The other guy might not like being photographed."

"Look Bruce, you did fine on the heli-carrier until you let the laboratory mouse over there get into your mind."

"I could use Dr. Banner's help here" I said not wanting to be alone with Loki.

"Not an option, I think he should come and get a reward for being green, even if it isn't easy. Besides if you get angry Thor or I could fly you out into the country until you cool off." Tony said to Dr. Banner.

"The green man does not like me" Thor said.

"Well he's not the first to put you on that list" Tony said glancing at Loki.

"Fine, but any hint of the other guy and I am out of there." Bruce looked at me and said. "Do you think you can handle everything now? I feel bad leaving you like this."

Pffff "I'll be fine, but will I be safe with Loki on my own?"

"No need to worry about my brother. He is well guarded."

"What about Clint, Natasha, or Agent Coulson where are they? Maybe one of them can stay with me as I finish things up."

"They went home for the night for much needed recuperating, as per Nick Fury's orders" said Steve.

"Ok, I think I am going to stay and do a bit more work before I call it a night." 

“Why the fuck should you stay when you know you shouldn't be alone with Loki even if he is "well-guarded" like Thor said.” My brain was screaming at me.

"Great, Bruce and I will look over the results you get in the morning. Let’s get going shall we, our public waits."

"Before you go where can I get some food I haven't really eaten much today?"

"There's a cafeteria upstairs, it's really easy to get to, if you want me to show you before we leave" said Steve.

“I have an idea” Tony said, "why don't we just eat here, I can call Pepper and she can bring us some really good food from Carmines." 

We all agreed and Tony called Pepper to meet up with us. Carmines being one of the best Italian family oriented restaurants in New York City, I had heard it was a bit in shambles, but not enough to be out of business like some many places where because of everything that happened. We just sat around and talked about the other day’s events.

"Did we order enough food for Loki" I asked at one point?

"My brother will not eat food of Midgard."

"So, he's not eating at all?” I asked a little bit concerned. “How long can he live like that?" 

"On Asgard we trained very hard to withstand any circumstances."

"Where is everyone?" a woman's voice called out.

Tony jumped out of his seat and ran up to the beautiful light red haired woman kissed her on the cheek and helped her with the bags of food. She was dressed very nicely in a white dress that stopped right above the knees, a gold belt was around her waist and the sleeves of the dress stopped right above her elbows.

She looked at me and said "Hi I’m Pepper Potts."

"I am Cassidy. Do you need help setting up Miss Potts?"

"Yes, please some of the guys don't really know how to set up a dinner, and please call me Pepper, Everyone does.” She said with a laugh. I laughed with her and helped her set out the food.

We went to the table on the other side of the room that was out of site of the cage. I was a little relived that I didn't have Loki in my sights for once. I might not be able to eat the proper way and made a mess of myself if he were watching me. 

Pepper and I found some plates, silverware, and napkins in the cupboards that were along the wall and set the table. Then we set out the dinner which consisted of spaghetti and meat balls, salad, and lemon chicken smothered in a lemon butter sauce with capers. We all sat down at the metal table with chairs and began to eat. Pepper made us retell our stories because she missed out on it the first round. 

"Looks like we're done with our dinner I can help you clean up before I leave."

"No, Pepper I'll get it. You go with Tony, I am sure he wants you with him."

"Cassidy's right, please come" Tony gave her a look like a lost puppy dog.

"Fine" she said with a huff "how about a rain check for next time."

"I won't let you next time either; after all you did bring us the food, it's the least I can do to show my gratitude."

"If you’re sure?"

"I am now you guys should get going."

They all left me to clean up the dinner. I threw away what wasn't needed and wiped down the table with a cloth. When I was done I went to go pick up the results from the weapons and walked back into the other room to start testing the glider with the magic from the staff. I hooked up wires to the chariot got the scepter in one hand and crossed my fingers in the other. I then climbed on to the rig to see if it worked. To my delight it did, just like the guns did when you touched them with the enchanted stick. I hovered in one spot going forward, backwards, and side to side making certain not to hit the walls, floor, or celling.

"And for my next trick" I said and shot at the result panel. "She shots and scores and the crowd go wild." I made a little crowd noise and then landed the jet sky flyer. "Hmmm I wonder if they'll let me name the weapons." I said to myself with a yawn.

I walked out into the other room once again and peeked in the jail the see what Loki was doing and saw that he was sound asleep. "Dam, the guy's hot even when he's sleeping." 

I examined the printer to see how long it would take for everything to finish. The little screen said “estimated time till completion: 40 minutes.” “Well this is going to take a while I'll just sit on the couch and close my eyes for a few minutes. I'll hear the beep when it's done” I thought to myself, but I didn't hear it. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was getting late in the city. I had just left my best friend Sarah's house. We didn't really watch out for the time because we were studying for finals, which started this week. I don't usually walk the streets at night on my own, but I didn't see any other choice and my brother Greg was on a trip. As I was walking by an ally that was not as well lit as the others around it, when I felt a hand grab my shoulder with force, I took a breath to scream, but the persons other hand clamped over my mouth.

"Shut-up pretty one and don't make a fuss. You’re going to be my little bitch" a man's voice said against my ear as he put tape over my mouth and bound my arms behind my back.

I tried to squirm away from the man's hold, but he was to strong. I was about to step on his foot with mine when he spoke again.

"Now, now, now is that any way to treat the man who's going to give you what you secretly want you slut. I have a gun if you don't do as I say got it?"

My back was still to the man, but I smelled alcohol and cigarettes on his breath. He pulled me closer and put one of his hands down my V-neck shirt sliding his hand under my bra and started to rub my nipple between his fingers. I lurched forward trying to get away from his prying hands, but he just pulled my body closer to him. Not only could I hear his heavy breathing at my back, but I could feel his penis getting harder and harder pushing up against my body. He pulled his hand out.

"I got a gun in the back of my pants so, don't try to run."

He pulled me around to face him. Even though the ally was dark I saw his brown eyes looking at me lustfully, he had a full beard and wild brown hair. His outfit was dark, so he could blend in with the shady street corner. “No, please God no, please send help” I cried out in my mind, as his hands came close to my waist to unbutton my pants.

"Freeze" a voice said. "Step away from the young lady and get on your knees."

My eyes popped open in my dream as I heard a gunshot. I still felt arms on my shoulders shaking me, but this time my hands where free, so I baled my fingers into a fist and punched the face that was close to mine. I was fully awake now to see who my assaulter was. Their back was to me and I heard a groan of pain. I sat up and realized where I was and who I had just punched in the face.

"Oh, crap! Steve I am so sorry I didn't realize" I said as the tears where starting to come to my eyes. Not only did I feel bad, but that nightmare stirred up some old things I really tried to bury.

Steve got up from the floor still covering part of his eye and nose. He turned to the cage where Loki was fully awake watching everything. "What did you do to her Loki?" Steve said raising his voice.

Loki put his hands in the air in defense and stepped away from the glass.

"It wasn't him Steve" I said defensively. I walked up to the glass and looked at Loki. "It was you, wasn't it? I heard a loud bang in my nightmare and that's what woke me up." I came eye to eye with Loki. "Thank you Loki."

I could see Loki's eyes grow wide with shock, but he soon shook himself out of it and lowered his head as if to say you’re welcome. I then turned to Steve to explain what I think happened.

"I was having a vivid nightmare of something that happened to me a long time ago, I won't go into details with you, but in the end I was saved by a cop name Janice. She was my inspiration to become a cop so I could keep scum bags off of the street. By the time I went to the academy Janice moved up to lead detective. I must have been talking in my sleep and woke up Loki. He couldn't get to me, so he pounded on the glass really hard and loud to wake me up."

Steve stared at Loki and asked. "Is what she saying true or did you somehow use your magic to get in her head? Nod if that's what really happened."

Loki nodded his head yes, then went back to his bed on the floor and sat down. Steve turned away from Loki and crossed over to me. I looked in the corner of his left side of the face where I knew I had punched him. Steve's eye and nose where both a bit swollen.

"Oh, Steve" I said putting my hands to my face to cover my emotions. "I am so sorry."

"It's alright Ms. Martin I don't sleep well either because of dreams about my past" Steve said with a distant look in his face. "You should go home it's late."

"What about you?"

"I haven't found a place to live yet."

I went to my purse and got out my wallet and gave him my family's card. "I think there might be a place open if you call."

"Thank you Cassidy." 

"No problem. What time is it?"

"zero two hundred hours" he said glaring at his watch.

"How time flies by when one is have such fun" I said picking up the results and quickly putting them away. "Now I just need to call a cab."

"There's no need for a cab, didn't Nick tell you that if you work here you get one of the company cars as well?" I shook my head no and then Steve said "Come on I'll show you where your car is then. The keys should be in it for you to dive home."

I got my purse and followed Steve into the elevator that was around the corner from the table we ate at several hours ago. It took about a minute or so for us to get to the right floor. The elevator was a glass one which made me really freaked out because they made me fill unsafe. Steve got off when the doors opened walked down the hall and opened the door for me which was at the end of it.

"Let my guess what kind of car it is" I said entering the garage after Steve and closing my eyes without looking. "Standard issue black grandma looking yet modern car" I opened my eyes to see I nailed the description. I laughed at myself for pulling of the cliché car for people who work for special agencies. "Thank you for showing me where the car was Steve" I said as I walked up to the car. 

Steve walked up to the car and opened the door for me. I slid into the black leather seat and found the keys underneath the sun vizier. I put the keys into to the ignition and started it up. I rolled down the window to talk to Steve.

"Thanks again. Have a good night and once again I am so sorry about punching you."

He chuckled and said "It will be a good story to tell the others." He must have seen the worried look in my eyes because he said next. "Don't worry I won’t tell them everything you told me. Just if you’re sleeping don't wake Cassidy up because she's got a good arm."

I laughed with him and started to drive towards the exit. I pressed a button to get out of the car lot went across the bridge to check out and drove off towards home. It took about 30 minutes to get there. I parked the car in an empty spot along the road and got out of the car. I pressed the button to set the alarm on it. I decided not to go to my place, but to the bakery. I knew I wouldn't fall asleep again after the dream so what was the point. My mother would be in the kitchen starting on today's baked goods, so I walked around the corner of the building and went to the back door of the bakery shop, pulled out my second set of keys and walked in.


	5. Books, food and stupidity

If someone from a magazine asked me where to find the best freshly baked goods in NYC, I would tell them Little Red's Bakery. No matter what time of the day it was as soon as you walked in the doors you were greeted with the smell of freshly baked goods. It could be something simple like bread or elegant like chocolate centered croissants. I just loved standing at the back and taking in the different smells. I was about to go further in towards the kitchen when my mother came around the shelves that blocked a person from seeing any one entering.

Her light brown hair that had strands of white and gray throughout it was put up into a bun with a hair net. She was wearing her home made apron with a towel in her hands and was wiping off flour as far as I could tell; a look of worry was on her face. She set down the towel on the island where ingredients had been set out to make a batch of something. 

“Hey Mom” I said walking into the bakery.

"Cassidy you scared me! Seeing my face she instantly went into worried mom mode, are you alright you usually don't come down here." She then walked over to me and gave me a hug.

"I am fine mom, just had a bad dream and wanted to see if you wanted help making something?"

She chuckled and shook her head. "Must run in the family when you got a lot of things on your mind huh? I am sorry about your dream though."

I grinned back at her and said "It's alright mom, and yes baking does get my mind off of things. What are you making right now?"

"One of your favorites if you want to help me?"

"Mom, that doesn't really narrow it down" I said rolling my eyes.

"Raspberry, lemon, poppy seed scones, with cream cheese frosting drizzled on top."

I went over to the kitchen sink that was in between the counters and washed up, and then I went to the rack to put on an apron.

"Perfect, can I take two baker’s dozen to work with me tomorrow?" I said getting started on the dry ingredient wail my mother worked on the wet.

"Of course you can Cas. Which reminds me Joey called and said you quit to work for Tony Stark, what's that all about? I thought you wanted to be a cop ever since you were saved by that nice lady?" She said as she cracked another egg and put it into the bowl.

"I did want to become a cop like Janice, but with this job I fill like I can do so much more for the people of the world and not just New York City" I said as I finished up the last dry ingredient and started to mix them together.

"As long as it's not anything illegal or a job we wouldn't approve of then go for it. She paused and said "Do you think you’re going to be happy with this job?" Mom said as she started to pour the wet ingredients into the dry and I stirred.

"To be honest mom, I think I'll be a lot happier working this job then being a cop. One reason being I don't feel hunted by the past there."

My mother nodded understanding that what happened to me in the alleyway with that man was a hard thing to get past. In the end though the gun went off in his pants when he went to kneel and Officer Janice Smith arrested him. 

After mixing everything up we placed it on the oven trays to bake in the oven, then we got started on the frosting. The frosting didn't take long to make, but we needed it to stay out of the warm room air so that it wasn't too thin. As the scones where baking we mixed up a batch of chocolate chip muffins. We put them into one of the other ovens in the kitchen. 

The kitchen had four ovens, two warmers, and a small walk in freezer and refrigerator. Shelves and cupboards where all over the place that held the stuff you would need to bake. Over our head was in oval shaped pot and pan rack. I lost myself in the baking with her for two hours. My mother was taking out some fresh bread when she looked at the clock."

"My goodness I didn't realize it was five, when do you have to be at work dear?" She said as she put the bread on a cooling rack.

"You want to know something funny? I forgot to ask. I should go up to my place to shower and change. I'll come back down and grab the box of scones before I leave."

"Do you want some money for a cab?" Mom said as she pulled a pan of poppy seed muffins on to a tray to put into the display case out front.

"Oh, no I forgot to tell you they gave me a car" I said a little excitingly.

"Really? Well I guess those are a part of the benefits you get for working for a billionaire." Mom said as she came back in from the front. "Go ahead and get cleaned up I'll put everything in the box for you."

I kissed her on the cheek and said "Thanks you’re the best have a good day." 

"You too Hun."

I walked around the corner to the steps of the front. I walked through the double doors and then walked up to my place, and opened the door to my one bedroom apartment. It was small, but perfect for one person it had a living room with only a couch and arm chair which overlooked the tiny kitchen and dining room. From the living room you could see the door that led to my room. I could fit a dubbed sized bed in it and a small dresser, I was lucky to even have a closet. I went straight for the bathroom that has a door to it as well, in the small room were a sink, toilette, and a stand up shower. 

I pulled off all of my clothes not really caring where they landed and turned on the shower and got in. When I was done I picked up the clothes from the floor and put away what was clean and threw in the hamper what wasn't. I stood in front of my mirror closet with only a towel covering my body. 

"What do I want to wear today" I said aloud.

In my mind I thought of different ensembles that would be suitable for work.

"Anything, but black" I said as I pushed another shirt away. "Aha!" I exclaimed as I pulled out a royal blue 3/4 sleeve shirt with a square neck line. 

I went to my dresser to pull out underwear and dark brown bell-bottom corduroy pants. When I was done setting things out I put it all on.

"Now what to do with my hair" I said aloud, I often talk to myself. 

I looked at my long brown hair and put it up in a braid. I then decided to put on a little make-up. Not much just a little to look nice, but why am I dressing like this? I hardly ever put make-up on I thought as I put on eye shadow. Then it hit me. I wanted to look my best for Loki not work. 

"Crap" I exclaimed and then shrugged my shoulders. "Who, cares."

I finished getting ready and was about to leave when an idea came to me. I walked over to my book shelf that was on the other side of my couch facing the door next to my television. I loved to read, my book shelf consisted of classics, poems, history, and much more. I scanned the shelves until I found what I wanted.

"Perfect" I exclaimed as I took out the book and then proceeded to walk out the door and lock it.

 

I headed down the stairs to the outside of the building and walked back to the back of the bakery which was now open for today’s costumers. I knew my mother would be busy at the front with some of her other employees, so I just grabbed the box on the counter and called over my shoulder. "Thank you mom, have a good day. I love you"

She popped her head into the back real quick and said. "You’re welcome Cas love you too."

I managed to open the back door of the bakery and walked to my car. I set the box on the curb, so that I could unlock it and then load the box. Having done that I got in the car, buckled up, and then drove off to work. 

…….

The elevator I had to take in order to get down to my section of the building was empty. I had a feeling that this section of the building was closed off for now. I was thankful that I remembered the way from the garage even though last night was late. I got to my floor with the box of scones in my hands, my purse on my arm, and the book I grabbed for Loki was on top of the box. When I got off of the elevator I noticed that there were two hall ways. I guess I really wasn't paying much attention to my surroundings. To my right was a hall way that leads to unknown rooms and to my left was the short hall way that lead to the small kitchen we used the other day. Before I turned left I heard Thor's voice.

"It would be unwise to travel until my brother has healed."

"Talk about this later someone just got off of the elevator" said Natasha's voice.

No point in standing here any longer, I went down the short hall that led to the kitchen and dining room and set the box down on the counter.

"Good morning everyone" I said to Tony, Bruce, Steve, Natasha, Clint, and Thor. They all acknowledged me beck except Thor didn't say morning he said "Good-Morrow."

"What's in the box" asked Tony as he stood up from his chair to try to peek in the box.

"Sit down and you'll see nosy." I said as I got down plates for everyone. Steve got up to grab the plates from my hands and put the stack on the table; he then went back to his chair and sat. I brought the box of scones to the table and plated everyone up.

"What bread is this?" asked Thor

"We call them scones, I made them this morning."

Tony took a bite, he looked up at me with a pleased look on his face and said "Who knew that sassy Cassy could bake and throw a good punch?"

I turned red from embarrassment and anger and snapped back "I am only sassy with you Stark." Then I looked at Steve’s face just to see how bad it fared from my fist. I noticed the poor guy had a small black eye in the corner of his left eye and I lowered my head in shame.

"Lay off the poor girl Tony can't you see she feels bad enough for accidentally punching me?" Steve said as he took a bite of his scone.

At that point everyone had gotten a scone and where thanking me for bringing them. Now there was only one person left to make sure ate, I needed to find the courage to ask.

"There are so many scones, can I give a few to Loki?" I asked a bit nervously.

Everyone at the table stopped eating and looked at me as if I had gone off my rocker. Thor was the one to break the silence in the room.

"You have a kind heart indeed to think of my brother, but it is folly. He refuses to eat food of Midgard."

"Other than you has anyone else really tried to get him to eat?" As I said this I stared down everyone at the table. I could tell that they hadn't by the reaction. They either shifted and looked uncomfortable or looked down not wanting to meet my gaze.

Thor shook his head no and then Steve said what must have been on a lot of people's mind. "To be honest none of us wanted to be around him to try."

Humph I breathed out and then grabbed a paper plate putting two scones on it. I was about to walk out of the room when I felt a strong hand upon my shoulder. I looked over it to see Thor's face.

"I know you have good intent, but this is unwise. You don't know what Loki is capable of."

"Thor I appreciate your concern, but if you really want to go home I suggest Loki gets his strength back before he leaves."

"At least let us grab some weapons before you go in there” said Steve.

"Fine, I'll wait." I said putting the plate down and leaned up against the counter.

Everyone got up from the table. Thor and Steve went down the hall towards the rooms that must be where they sleep I concluded. Clint went to the corner of the kitchen to grab the bow and quiver that I didn’t realize were there until they were in his hands. Tony always seems to have some sort of gadget that contained his Iron Man suit. This time it wasn't the bracelets, but a red suit case that he stuck one of his feet in, it transferred from a suitcase into the suit around his body. The only ones who didn't feel need for weapons where Bruce and Natasha. 

"You going to suit up or what" Tony said taking off his mask and looking at Bruce.

"I think that would be reckless Tony the other guy might hurt Cassidy because she'll be in the way, I think I'll just go for a walk instead. Have someone get me when you’re done." Bruce said as he got up from that table and left the room.

I could see Tony hesitate on making Bruce stay or going with him so he wouldn't be alone. By that time his mind was made up the others had got back with their gear. Steve had his shield and Thor had his hammer I got the book and food off of the counter and headed towards the cage.

Loki was awake and sitting against the wall looking bored. He didn't pay attention to any of us until I had walked up to the first door to go in. I could see a look of interest flash in Loki's green eyes. 

“What the fuck am I doing?” I thought, “Well there is no turning back now.” I was going to go in when I noticed the there was a card swiping machine near the handle.

"I don't think you have access to that room with your ID" said Natasha behind me. 

I noticed that everyone was behind me weapons ready for any sudden moves from Loki. I didn't know what made me feel safer all of the sudden, was it walking into a room with a deranged god or having a freaking armada at your back ready to pounce if there was so much as a sneeze. Natasha slid in her card and the door in front of me and it slid open. 

"Unauthorized personnel in the premises" said a computerized voice.

"Override the system" Natasha answered back.

I looked at Loki whose eyes were glued to me. I could see the curiosity in them and all I wanted was to turn around and trash the whole idea, but I found the nerve to move on as I went through the other door in front of me as the one behind me closed. I knelt down to his level setting down the novel on one side of me and the plate of food on the other, then I unhooked the mask that they put on his face. 

"What are you doing mortal?" Loki said in a harsh voice.

"If you must know I am bringing you food."

He scoffed and folded his arms across his chest. "You won't get me to eat-

I shoved a piece of scone in Loki's mouth. It felt like the people on the outside of the room held their breath. I focused on getting Loki to eat and the fact that I got to see his handsome face for the first time. The mask hid Loki's high cheek bones and lovely pale lips. I wasn't quite sure what one of Loki's smiles’ looked like, but I could only guess.

"You were saying?" I snapped back at him because he had greedily took the rest of the scone from my hands.

"What else did you bring with you?" Loki asked as he looked at the book.

"I brought you a book to read. It's written by a very famous author. I thought you might like him even though he is of earth."

"I don't wish to-"

I interrupted him again a little sassy not really wanting to hear the excuse. "Don't judge a book by its cover. It's one of my favorites."

"Alright woman, indulge me. What is it called and why is it in this form?" Loki said as he picked up the book to look at it for a moment and then set it back down to go back to eating.

I got off of my knees which were killing me and sat folding one leg in front of me and then placing the other right on top. I then explained the summery of the book to Loki as he ate the scones I brought in.

"On earth this is how we read most things." I said as I picked up the book and then set it down. "This novel is called Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. It's about a man named Jean Valjean who gets imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread. After his years of time in prison Jean, is set free or so he thinks. A man named Javert makes it his life's ambition to wreak havoc on Jean's life." 

By the time I was done Loki finished eating and looked at me with a curious look in his eyes.

"You've managed to capture my attention with your words woman."

"Look I'll make you a deal, if you call me Cassidy, which is my name I'll convince them to let you have the mask off more." 

A smirk came across his face and then he said. "It should be amusing to see you try."

"Watch me" I snapped back and then picked up the mask to put it back on. 

I needed to get away from Loki as fast as possible because being close to him made my stomach turn and it wasn't in a I am scared of you way. It was more of a there's something about you that I like and what to know more. I picked up the plate and then proceeded to walk out of the doors. Everyone just stood there dumbfounded. I was about to walk past them when a voice came out of nowhere making me jump. 

"What the hell is going on down here" Asked Nick Fury “You’re letting a new agent into a jail with the god of mischief and lies. There had better be a good reason."

Somehow I had managed to find my voice and answer back. "I asked them to let me."

"Let you? Let you? Are you out of your mind Agent Martin? In case you weren't informed Loki is a dangerous criminal that manipulated some of my best agents. Now why would you want to be in that jail?" Director Fury said with rage in his voice.

"Because I was the only one who had the audacity to go in there and make Loki eat something. Everyone one is afraid of a man who's basically in Fort Knox. Loki can't even eat or drink because he's got a mask on all the time and he's chained up from head to toe." I said a little defensively yet cheeky at the same time. “Holy shit” I thought as I put my hands over my big mouth. “I just told off my boss, I am so fired.”

Nick just glared at me with his one eye and said. "There are very few people who talk to me like that and get away with it. I have a feeling that your time in that room with Loki had an influence on you." He then glared at Loki in the cage who was clearly entertained by everything going on outside his cell. 

I looked at Loki and felt bad that everyone just wanted to point a finger at him every time things went wrong. I found myself speaking again in Loki's defense. "Director Fury, Loki has nothing to do with what I just said that was 100% me. I know I spent time with him in that room, but to be honest I didn't let Loki get to me. If anything I got Loki to do things he normally wouldn’t do."

"Alright Agent Martin, but if you ever pull a stunt like that again you know where the door is.” After a short pause he continued “In the mean time I'll make sure your card has full accuses to Loki's jail on one condition" Nick said as he held up a finger in my face. "You will not under any circumstances go in that room unless you have someone from S.H.I.L.E.D or the Avengers watching your back is that understood?"

"Yes, sir"

Nick turned to leave and then turned back. "And I want a full report on this and whatever you got on the weapons as soon as possible. Everyone knows their job's for today. Stark I need you to stay with Agent Martin and Dr. Banner to review the results. Agent Martin you have my permission to take off the mask and chains from Loki."

"Great I was getting a little bored with the clean-up crew. Let's get Bruce and get the fun stuff started." Tony said as he started to walk towards the elevator.

"Do you really need your suit for that Tony?" I said following after him.

"No" Tony said as the suit came off of him and transformed back into the red suit case. "You don't need to come with me I'll find Bruce. Get started setting things up doll." Tony said with a wink.

I rolled my eyes and was about to walk into the other room when I remembered something. Fury went up with Tony. I was lucky that no one else had left yet. I looked at Natasha who had sat down on the couch with Clint just to observe things from a different angle. Thor and Steve didn't find it necessary to have their shield and hammer with them so they went to put them away. 

I stood in front of the couch and said. "Mind if I use your ID again Natasha? I have a promise to fulfill."

Clint was the one to look at me with a stern look on his face. "I know someone told you briefly what I went through when I was under Loki's control, but you really have no concept of what he's done." he said bitterly. "Why do you insist on helping him?"

"Because unlike most of you I don't think Loki is a lost cause, he's just someone who went down a dark path and doesn't know how to pick up the pieces. I won’t go into detail, but I had a friend who was on a destructive path and all she needed was love and support to get her to the woman she is today. Not all who wander are lost Clint. They just need to see the light and have a glimmer of hope."

Natasha looked at me with her best poker face on, but I knew I had struck a chord inside of her based on what she said to me as she handed me her card. "I was given a chance once and I wouldn't be sitting here today if they didn't see potential."

I took the card nodding my head in thanks and went into the room with Loki again. Loki got up from the spot he had been sitting the whole time and came towards me with his best poker face on that he could come up with, but one look in the god's eyes told a different story, which was impressed. Kneeling down to the level he was at earlier was easier than having to stand on your tippy toes to take off the mask, so I took off his chains first. I started with the ones at his ankles by kneeling. I could tell he enjoyed me at his feet as I moved on to his waist. Next were Loki's wrist and it all came down with a clang to the floor, now for the mask, I could feel my stomach really turn as I had to put my arms around his neck and pull my body close to Loki's. His chest was against mine and I could not only feel his heart pounding but feel the lack of heat from his body. It was hard getting the mask off this time because the god was almost a foot taller than me, but I managed to make do. I was about to lower myself back to my own height when I lost my balance and started to fall back-words. Loki's agility was fast as he grabbed hold of my arms and set me back on my feet with a crooked smile across his face.

"You’re cleverer than I anticipated." Loki said pushing away from me. "Perhaps not all humans are daft like I presumed." He grinned. 

I picked up the mask that I had dropped from the floor and snapped back at him. "A thank you would be nice you know instead of judging that I'm an incompetent mortal who doesn't know how to tie her own shoes."

"Oooo I like her. She's got spirit. I see why they asked you to join there little collection." He said with a coy smirk on his face looking behind me.

I turned to see who he had been talking to and saw Thor on the outside with his across his chest. I took that as my cue to walk out of there and get to work.


	6. Think Before You Speak

Walking back into the room with the equipment to redo all the hard work I had done yesterday would be hard, but it had to be done. The very reason it was hard for me is it made me feel like a had done something wrong or I couldn't get the work done by myself. Instead of starting right away I decided to wait for Tony and Bruce. As I was waiting I took out the results from the other day so we could start with that first. Now all I had to do was wait. Steve, Natasha, Clint, and Thor left to help with more of the clean up and obtaining more of the Chautari’s things. I wondered if we should do some studies on the leviathan today. I had forgotten about those, but with everything that had been going on who could blame me? When I was done setting things up I saw Tony and Bruce outside the room getting ready to enter the one I was in.

"Let's see what we got here shall we" said Tony entering the room. "Where are the graphs and readings?"

"There right here on the table in front of you" I said holding up the long paper print out.

"No no no no, this will never do. This is to exhausting." Tony said pulling out his phone and then speaking into it. "Jarvis"

"Yes, sir" said the male computerized voice.

"I need a diagram, video's, and anything else you can pull up on the work Ms. Martin did and Dr. Banner."

"Of course, sir will that be all?"

"Yes, Jarvis for now that will be all thank you."

Tony didn't have to wait long to get what he asked for, I could see he needed it to be on a larger scale, because the phone was too small to get the stuff done that he wanted.

"Let's see if we can't bring their computers into the modern age. We will never get things done working with stone age technology." Tony said as he started punching in keys and rearranging the room. "It's time for an upgrade." Tony said spreading out his hands into the air and video's and diagrams popped up around the room. 

Bruce pulled his glasses out of his shirt pocket to take a better look. "It seems you forgot to hook the scepter up to the computer to run tests on it as well."

"You could have reminded me to do it, but you were more concerned about other things." I nicely reminded him.

"I guess we're both to blame then." Bruce said shifting his feet looking uncomfortable.

"No worries we'll just have to start from scratch. Maybe it will give me some idea's to pass on to Pepper for new weapons," Tony replied.

We started from the bottom all over again and worked our way up to the bigger things. We even tried to bring the Chautari back to life, which was a pointless effort because they were dead. That was the only thing the scepter didn't seem to have any effect on. 

"Looks like we covered everything." Bruce said.

"Not everything Bruce. We forgot the junkyard whales." Tony said as he patted Bruce's back.

"The what?" he asked.

"He means the leviathan.” I quipped. “I couldn't think of what else to call them, so I gave them my own name. Tony seems to have taken credit for it."

"I told you I liked your name for them better than my own, but let’s do it after lunch. I am famished." Tony said looking at his watch.

I looked at one of the time to see that it was way past noon. We hadn’t taken a break or eaten anything since breakfast. Leaving everything where it was we walked to the kitchen to find something to eat. On the other side of the counters I noticed a refrigerator for the first time. It looked brand new.

"This is odd, I know I am not a great observer sometimes, but I really don't remember this being here." I said walking up to the refrigerator and then opening it to find it fully stocked with food and drinks.

"That's because it wasn't here until I asked for one to be brought." said Tony behind me looking for something to eat.

"Do you mind not hovering over me like that?" I growled. "You’re invading my space."

"You didn't seem to mind it this morning when you were with Loki." Tony said with shrug.

"That was totally different." I said blushing at the thought of Loki touching me because of my clumsiness. I turned back to the fridge to hid my further embarrassment and see what I could come up with for everyone.

"I don't know about Bruce here, but I don't really cook. Mind making us something sweetheart?" Tony asked.

"How many times must I tell you to call me Cassidy." I said irritated.

Tony didn't reply, but just sat there with his feet on the table and chair pushed back words. How I would just love to go over there and push him over, but I knew that would only give Tony cause to mess with me even more. I decided to ignore Tony and get down to the business of cooking some lunch. I tapped my fingers on the handle of the fridge until I knew what I could make that was quick and easy. 

A gourmet quesadilla was what I wanted to make. I grabbed the sharp cheddar cheese and grated it in a big heap that would be enough for everyone. I then chopped up onion, red pepper, and mushroom sautéing them in the pan with butter and a pinch of salt. That done I got out the flour tortillas and put the ingredients on them perfectly layering the sautéed vegetables and cheese and then put another tortilla on top. I pulled out a pan and sprayed it with oil so that nothing would stick to the bottom and then carefully set the tortilla inside the pan and started to cook it. I made four of them, if people wanted more I could make more later. I put them on plates and set one down in front of Bruce and Tony. The other two I had on plates in my hands.

I didn't want to ask Tony for any favors, but I didn't see any other choice. "Tony, do you mind if you eat it on the couch in the other room so that I can give Loki something to eat?"

Tony sighed and said "Only if you keep cooking and bringing baked goods."

"Deal" I said walking out of the room and Tony following after me. 

I felt bad for leaving Bruce alone, but I knew it was for the best to not have him tag along. Tony sat himself on the couch to eat his lunch and keep a watchful eye out for trouble. In the meantime I crossed my fingers hoping that my card would be upgraded for getting into Loki's cell. 

"Here goes nothing" I said as I swiped the card. The door slid open with a whoosh. I went through one and then the other bringing both plates into the cell.

Loki was on his bed reading the novel. He held up a finger, so that I might give him a moment to finish whatever part he was at. After waiting a minute or so he closed the book and looked up at me. 

"Well, what did you bring this time? Another strange piece of sweet bread?" 

"No, I am sure it's something you've never had before." I said as I sat down next to him accidentally brushing my leg against Loki's. I scooted away from him and handed the plate over.

Loki took a look at the quesadilla and picked it up off his plate. I could see the hesitation in his eyes.

"I didn't poison it if you’re worried about that." I said taunting him so he would eat.

Loki's eyes rolled over to me and did a heavy breath out before he took a bite. Having swallowed the first one he took another. Not indicating whether or not he liked it.

"Well do you like it or not?" I said a little impatiently.

"You were right. It's nothing I've ever tasted before." Loki said a little flatly not give himself away and went back to eating. Loki stopped half way through his quesadilla and looked at me. "Why, are you eating with me?" 

I swallowed my bite before I answered. "Because, I don't know about you, but as for me I hate eating alone. It makes me feel depressed and isolated. I didn't want you to feel the same way so I joined you. If you don't want me here just say so."

Loki didn't say anything. He just went back to eating ignoring my answer. I had a feeling my reply made him feel ill-at-ease, so I went back to eating too, but the silence between us was killing me. I finished my food and waited from Loki to finish his before I started another conversation.

"Do you like the book?"

"You lied about its context. I've been read nothing about the people you've told me. Instead I've been reading about a man called Monsieur Myriel." Loki said with anger in his voice.

"Where did you leave off?" I said wiping of my greasy hands on the napkins I put into my pockets before entering the room and picking up the book.

Loki did the same and put his hands on mine to show me where he had stopped reading. I was astonished when Loki turned the page to book 2 of Fantine. 

"You've already finished book one?" I said a little amazed. Loki just glared at me clearly irritated. "Don't worry Jean comes up in this part. Here I'll show you." I said pulling my hands away from Loki's so that I could get to VI of book 2 in Fantine. "You see it's all right here. No lies or tricks."

Loki looked down to where I was pointing and took the book from me to read from there.

"You can't do that" I said taking the book away from him. "You have to read everything or you might miss something important to the story."

"I can read it how ever I want" Loki said trying to take it back.

"Fine, then you don't deserve to read it at all." I said getting up to leave with the book in my hands. Loki got up too to follow after me and swung me around to face him. 

"You won't walk away from me Cassidy, I will read it your way if you insist," Loki said sounding irritated. 

I seemed to have lost my voice to answer Loki back because he had just said my name for the first time. Even if it was with a hit of anger, it still sent a pleasant chill throughout my body. 

“Shit!” my mind thought as I handed Loki back the book, I was beginning to like Loki. Our hands touched as he took the book from me and once again my stomach turned. Damn, if I spend more time with Loki I'll learn to like him even more. Loki left me standing there to go pick up the mess from lunch I had left on the floor. Shoving it into my hands, snapped me out of lala land.

"Thank you" I said and then turned to leave the room. When I looked back Loki had a bewildered look on his face.

"You would think the guy knows how to say your welcome." said Tony as I walked by him.

"Look who's talking?" I mocked back. "Now that lunch is over let’s get Bruce and hook up a junkyard whale."

….

We had to go to a bigger part of S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters to run the test on the leviathan because the space we were given was to small. Unfortunately we didn’t get very good results from it like we had hoped. So we had to give it to one of the other departments of S.H.I.E.L.D to dissect and run their test. After we did that out next order of business was to write our report for Director Fury. It didn't take very long thanks to Tony making our work look effortless with his technology. 

Bruce and Tony decided that I needed to give the results to the Director, because I was now an official agent, but I still wanted them to come with me in case I couldn’t explain something. 

“The elevator is fast around here,” I thought as we went up. I stood on the other end of the glass elevator not wanting to look out of it. I don't mind heights, it was watching the world pass you by as you went up and fearing that it may shatter at any moment that set me on edge. It made me so tense I just wanted to throw-up. Finally it came to a stop and we got out, but as soon as my feet hit the stable floor I got really nauseous. Bruce must have seen the shade of green I must have turned. 

Before he could ask me how I was doing I said, "I'm fine Bruce, I just really don't like that elevator. It makes me real jittery. I can really get myself sick when I don't relax sometimes."

Bruce put his hand on my forehead just to make sure I wasn't fibbing. He then lowered his hand looking satisfied. We stood outside the director's office while he was busy dealing with the outcome of what happened, so we just double checked everything as we waited. Finally we were let into his office which was on the top floor overlooking the ocean and some landscape. Fury was sitting at his desk overlooking paperwork, “Probably a bill from the battle. I thought to myself jokingly.” 

"I assume you've done all the work and have come to give your report. If not I suggest you leave." Fury said without looking up from the papers sprawled across his desk.

"I just sent it to you. You should be getting it on your computer now." Tony said sitting down in one of the two black rolling arm chairs in front of Fury’s desk. He pulled out his phone pressed a few buttons and once again showing off his tech skills. 

“Tony always seems so pleased with himself when he pulls off stunts like that,” I said thought myself.

Fury pulling up his view screen to look at the report, briefly scanned it and nodded his head to show we had done well. That I guess was our cue to leave, as we all started to walk out of the office when Fury called my name.

"Agent Martin, I would like to speak to you about your next mission please. You two can leave and close the door behind you." Fury said looking at Tony and Bruce.

I wish they protested not wanting to leave me behind, but no such luck. Shit, my mind said. What the fuck have I done now to piss him off? Fury put away the papers he was looking at and turned off the screen to put his full attention on me.

"I want to talk to you about your next assignment, but first we need to wait for Thor."

I took a seat in one of the arm chairs, I wasn't really sure what my next mission was, but for some odd reason I had this feeling it was going to be one that not very many people liked and that's why it was only going to be me, Thor, and Fury in the room. We didn't have to wait long for the God of Thunder to walk in with the same outfit he had on one I first meet him. Thor went over to the other chair and was just barely able to fit in it with his muscular body. If the situation wasn't so serious I probably would have laughed at Thor trying to sit in such a small chair.

"The Lady Natasha said you wanted to see me" Thor told him.

"I did" sighed Nick Fury. "I said that we would give you back your brother and stay out of what you did with Loki, but the board has been pressuring me with another plan and this time I can't refuse them."

"I do not understand what that means." Thor replied confused.

"It means Thor, that I need to send someone else along with you when you return to Asgard with your brother, the board wants to insure the punishment of Loki." Fury said sounding as if he still had doubts of the mission.

"My father would not agree to this" Thor responded crossing his arms over his chest.

"I told them that,but I don't have a choice in the matter, so I want to send someone who might be able to convince your father otherwise." Fury said looking at me with his one eye.

"Me? Y-y-you can't be serious?" I stammered.

"Agent Martin, you were very impudent earlier with me. But in the end you still got me to see your side of things. Not only did you do that, but you've managed to get Loki to eat food. After putting great thought into this matter I think you’re best suited for what the board has requested." Fury said with solemn look about him.

"I will not put Cassidy in harm's way!" Thor's voice boomed.

"I am sure you'll be very attentive to Ms. Martin." Fury said trying to put Thor at ease.

"Why doesn't Thor just come back to tell us?" I asked under my breath not thinking of what I just said.

"What was that Agent Martin?" Fury questioned shooting a glance at me.

"It's not that I don't want to go Director Fury, but we should listen to Thor. Loki is not of our world and doesn't have to answer to our laws and I don't think Thor needs to either, so have Thor report back to you the outcome of the trial. I am sure if you asked Thor would be willing to do that, also that way we don't upset the King of Asgard."

Thor gave me a look of gratitude as Fury sat back into his chair and contemplated my suggestion. After a short amount of time he pushed his chair back to it's original position and looked at me.

"I need to pass along your idea to the board before I give my approval. In the meantime this meeting never happened. You can tell the others whatever you like, just don't tell them the details of what we discussed."

"I do not lie to my companions." Thor said with a glare. 

"You won’t have to, leave that to me Thor,” I told Thor. 

"Wait outside and I'll get you once the board has put it to a vote," Fury ordered.

Thor and I got up from the chairs and left the room to wait in the hall. As soon as we closed the doors Thor looked at me and put his hand on my shoulder.

"Believe me when I say this Cassidy. I would very much like you to come with me and my brother to Asgard, but it would not sit well with the All-Father."

"Why would you want me to come?" I asked.

Thor's smile faded and a look of sadness came over him. "Though you may not realize it Lady Cassidy, I can see you bring the good out in Loki. A side I have not seen from him in sometime."

"Yeah well, maybe that's because every time I go in there I'm so protected that even the president himself looks foolish with his guards." I teased trying to lighten up the mood.

Thor gave me a confused look, which made me laugh so hard I had to hold on to my sides. I had just gained control back when the doors opened and Fury stood there with a look on his face like a parent catching their child doing something bad. Fury’s look made me want to start again, but I knew that this wasn’t the time for fun and games.

Fury looked at Thor and said. "The board agreed to Cassidy's idea. You will go to Asgard as planned, but return to tell us what your father's rule is for Loki."

Thor bowed to Fury and replied. "Very well. I will accept the terms and return to Midgard once my father sets his sentence."

Fury then looked at me to say. "Your assignment is to help Loki until he leaves with Thor. Once they're gone I will give you your next assignment. You will keep me posted. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir," I replied.

"Good that will be all for now. You two are dismissed." Fury said as he turned to walk back into his office. Thor and I made our way back downstairs. I was thankful that we weren't bombarded with questions by everyone when we arrived. I kept my promise to Thor and told them half of the truth. 

"Fury just wanted to see how we can get Thor and Loki home without any problems," I told them. I was lucky that no one could tell yet when I was dishonest about something. Even if it was just a white lie.


	7. Every action has a reaction

In order to not answer the burning questions I saw behind every ones eyes, I changed the subject to what chores people would be doing. I was deemed the official cook and baker until the situation changed. I knew that once Thor and Loki left that the others would go their separate ways. Clint, Natasha, Phil, Steve, and I would be given a new assignments. Tony would go back to Stark industries and Bruce would be off saving the sick in some third world country. To be honest I didn't want things to end. I was happy here and was starting to feel like one of the group. After finishing the testing of the Chitauri components we gathered from the battle all that was left to do was to help with the cleaning up of New York City. So with nothing else to do for the day, I started to make two NYC styled pizza's. After I had gathered the supplies for the dough I asked around for people's toppings preferences. 

I started with Tony, “What kind of pizza do you like?” 

 

"I got a date with Pepper," Tony replied. 

"She's welcome to join us you know," I told him.

"Yeah, well Cas. Pepper and I have reservations at a restaurant tonight," he refused. “So maybe-” 

Before Tony could finish his sentence we heard Pepper's voice in the hallway talking on her cell phone. "I said to cancel everything else for today I have somewhere more important to be tonight. Yes, I will deal with that in the morning thank you." Pepper walked into the room put her phone away and looked at Tony. "I changed my mind about eating out tonight and thought I would come here to see if you and the others wanted to eat in?"

"So back to my question Tony what kind of pizza do you like?" I asked.

"Anything with meat," Tony answered. 

"If I had known that I could have picked some up on my way over here" said Pepper a little irritated.

"Oh no I am making it from scratch,” I responded.

"Oh! So you’re the one who made the scones that Tony brought me this morning?" Pepper exclaimed.  
I nodded my head and turned to the counter to start mix the pizza dough. I turned my head over my shoulder to ask Pepper "So, what kind do you want?"

 

"Whatever you make is fine,” Pepper began. “I sure did enjoy those scones. Tony wouldn't tell me where he got them, but he had to make sure I ate some."

"Let me guess he just flew it in for you?" I said as I started to knead the dough on the counter. "Tony must use his suit any chance he can get." I teased. 

That made Pepper giggle. Tony threw his hands in the air and walked out of the room as if to say I don't want any part of this. Having finished the dough by tossing it into the air a few times I put it on one of the pizza pans and then went to the other one.

"Tell me what I can do to help you Cassidy," said Pepper as she washed her hands in the sink.

"You can cook the sausage and cut the pepperoni log if you want," I replied.

Together, Pepper and I got the meat lovers pizza with mushrooms and olives in the oven. Now all it needed to do was bake. I looked in the fridge for some beer to have with our pizza, but I guess since we were at work alcohol was prohibited on the premise. I closed the fridge a little disappointed, but I could understand why we couldn't drink. I sat down with Pepper and she told me the stories about how Tony was kidnapped and became Iron Man. When they shared their first kiss after a bunch of drones tried to kill Tony. By the time Pepper was done the buzzer went off. I took the pizza's out to cool and cut them as people started to come into the small dining room to sit down for dinner. I wanted to join them, but at the same time I didn't want Loki to eat alone.

Steve guessing what I was about to do stood up and said, "I'll go with you, so you can give Loki his dinner" 

"Thanks Steve," I replied.

I entered into the room with the two plates. Loki was sitting on his bed with the book in his hands. He saw me come in and set it down.

"Perfect time I was just about to start book four of Fantine," Loki greeted me.

I handed him the plate of food and said "You read a lot faster then I do. Then again I if I had nothing better to do I might be in the same spot as you."

Loki took a bite of the pizza and asked, "What is this weird concoction you have given me?"

"We call it pizza here. It's basically a flat bread with sauce, cheese, and any ingredients you want. Do you like it?"

Loki snickered and said, "It is adequate for human food."

"Well if you don't like my food you don't need to eat" I replied pulling the plate of food away from him.

"Must you always take things from me woman?" Loki questioned in a sneering way. "I demand you give it back to me."

"Demand? Oh, no you won't. If you want it you need to ask nice or I can get the mask back out for being inconsiderate with me," I scolded. 

I could tell I made him mad, but I didn't care. I pulled out out of the mask and chains. The least Loki could do was show some respect for what I did to help him. If he even knew what the word respect meant.

"Please," he said uttering the word like it was a curse.

That was good enough for now. I guess we can work on how to say words later. I handed Loki back his plate and he went back to eating.

"I am unsure if I can finish the book before I leave for Asgard," Loki told me in between a bite.

"Take it with you," I said back.

"As a gift?" Loki asked with doubt in his voice.

"Yes, I want you to have it. Only if you want it," I offered.

"I would very much like to finish it at least. It seems you have got me into some of Midgardian's cultures." 

Loki said this as if it was a bad thing. To him many of our ways must have repulsed him. “Then why, my mind thought? Why would he want to take over our world and rule it, if he found it so repugnant.” I wanted to stay and ask, but both of us had finished our pizza. “Better not stay any longer then you have to I told myself as I got our plates and left the room.” When I entered the other room Steve had just finished his dinner as well.

"I can take your plates if you want Cassidy," he offered.

"No, thank you Steve I need to clean the kitchen. I also want to get started on a breakfast casserole for tomorrow." I told him as I walked into the other room to find that it was already done. "Thank you for cleaning the kitchen." I said looking at the table not really sure who to thank, but had a pretty good guess.

"I told you the other day that I owe you one and I stick to my word," Pepper replied.

I got out ingredients to make a breakfast casserole and the right sized pan that would hold everything.

"What are you doing now?" asked Pepper.

"I am making a casserole for tomorrow morning. You’re welcome to join us if you wish," I answered.

"I'll have to clear my schedule, but I would love to," Pepper smiled.

Everyone stayed in the kitchen to hang out and talk with me as I cut bread, chopped green onion, crack and beat the eggs, and chopped up ham. I decided not to make any ordinary breakfast casserole, but my own Eggs Benedict creation that I came up with this past Christmas. I then mixed everything together, so that the bread would soak up the eggs properly. I could make the hollandaise sauce in the morning I thought to myself. By the time I was done making it people decided it was time to go home. 

As we were saying our good-nights, I was struck by how differently and beautiful the way Thor said his evening farewell. "Well eve and see you when the sun rises."

Tony, Pepper, Natasha, Bruce, Clint, and I went up the elevator, while Steve and Thor went to there rooms. I got to my car and drove home for some well deserved sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It felt like I just climbed into bed when my phone rang and threw me out of my bed because it scared me. 

"I don't usually get calls this late unless it's an emergency" I muttered aloud with fear in my voice. As I fumbled out of my sheets and got on my knees to answer my cell, which I had knocked onto the floor with my fumbling. "Hello?" I answered with a big yawn.

"Cassidy, it's Steve. Get dressed and meet Thor outside your building." Steve said with an urgency in his voice.

"What's going on?" I asked as I jumped up and started to throw on clothes.

"Just get down there and everything will be explained." Steve replied in the same manner as before.

I was lucky that I could dress fast. I put on flat shoes knowing it's what could get me out of the door the quickest. I ran as fast as I could without trying to hurt myself. I wasn't sure what was going on, but something told me it was Loki. As soon as I ran out of the building I saw Thor outside pacing with his hammer in his right hand. Thor saw me and a small look of relief came over him, yet I could tell that he was still very concerned about something.

"What? What is it? Is it Loki?" I said out of breath.

"Yes, I can not calm him this time. You might be able to get to my brother and help with his sanity," He answered sounding worried. 

I was about to jog to my car when Thor grabbed me by the arm and said,"my way will be faster. Hold on to me."

I did as he told me. Thor wrapped his left arm around my back and held me close. With his other hand he held it up his hammer and started to twirl it real fast the next thing I knew we started to fly into the air. I thought the elevator was bad. Oh no this was much worse. I knew as soon as I got to the ground I would be seeing my dinner again. With all the chaos that was going on right now who could blame me? What normally took me half an hour to drive was about a 5 minute or less flight. As soon as we landed I pushed away from Thor and threw-up. Damn, urgent situations really got to me.

"Are you ill?" asked Thor with concern. 

When I finished I answered him, "No, I'll explain later take me to Loki. 

I really had to run to keep up with Thor because I was so much shorter than him. I could hear Loki screaming in agony all the way out in the kitchen. Even though I was out of breath and I wanted nothing more than to stop and get a drink to calm my stomach, but I pushed myself to keep going until I got into the the room. I saw Steve out of the corner of my eye just standing there watching not really sure what to do. 

"Whatever you do neither of you go in there unless I ask you to got it?" I ordered to Thor and Steve.

I entered into the room and Loki was on the ground curled up in a fetal position clutching his head and screaming in pain. I ran to his side and started to yell Loki's name so he knew I was here, but he couldn't hear me. I tried to get him to look at me, but the look on his face told me that the suffering was too great. After much effort I got his hands away from his head, but as soon as I did Loki pushed me away from him. 

I could see Steve and Thor rushing to the door to barge in and rescue me, but I yelled at them. "I am alright just stay out of here!"

Finally Loki sat up and his eyes opened. When they did it wasn't the lovely green I had seen before, but a bright ice cold blue. It really freaked me out at first not knowing what it meant, but I could see somehow that was the cause of his torment. I also knew that somewhere in those eyes the real Loki was lost and trying to fight his way out.

"Loki? "Loki, it's Cassidy, I know you can hear me!" I yelled as I put my hands on his face to force Loki to look into my hazel eyes.

Loki did one last scream and then stopped. His eyes slowly faded from the icy azure and went back to the bright green. 

"Cassidy?" he said with a confused and weary voice, collapsing from exhaustion into my body. 

I pushed him off of me with all of my strength. The poor guy was sweating like crazy. From a cop’s point of few they would say he was detoxing from drugs, but something deep down inside me told me that wasn't the case. I walked over to the toilette to the place where the sink should be, but all I found was a button. I pressed it and a sink came out of the wall with soap in the corner. On the other side of me a towel and a wash cloth popped out on a shelve. I took the washcloth got it wet and then wring out the water. I then went back to Loki was was passed out on the floor and wiped off the sweat from his head. I looked outside to see Thor and Steve.

"I think it's over now. I want one of you to go back to bed and the other to stay with me just to make sure," I instructed.

"I will stay with you and my brother. Go get rest" Thor said looking at Steve.

Steve looked reluctant to go back to his room, but did as he was told. Thor sat on the couch and put his hammer at the end of it. I went back to tend to Loki. I got up from the floor to get more cool water from the sink and went back once again to Loki's side. As soon as I touched him this time I saw him jolt up. I sat back worried that it might be another episode, but saw his eyes were green. When he saw that I was in there with me Loki’s eyes became wide with fear.

Loki clutched onto my shoulders and shook me. "Did I hurt you or touch you in anyway?" Loki asked with a weary look and concern in his voice. "Tell me!" he demanded.

"You pushed me away but, you didn't hurt me. I swear it." I replied in a soothing voice.

The tension left his body and Loki let me go. He went over to his bed and made himself comfortable and looked at me with exhaustion written in his face like he hadn't slept in years.

"Stay and read to me" Loki said in a demanding voice.

"I don't think I should."

"Well it seems that you can get me out of that state faster than anyone else could. I think they would insist upon it," he stated.

"You mean to tell me you've had this problem before?" I questioned sounding stund.

Loki didn't answer, but he didn't have to. His face told me all. I some how felt that Loki didn't need to speak for something to come across. He picked up the book that was on the side of his bed and sort of just dropped it into my hands not asking, but telling me what to do. It kinda irritated me, but after what he just went threw I let it slide this time. 

"I'll read to you until you start to fall asleep and then I'll go sleep on the couch to make sure you don't have another episode. Do we have an accord?"

"Your vocabulary is quite extraordinary for a lower life form such as yourself," he replied.

I wasn't sure how to take this comment, but I assumed that it was the closest he came to a complement. "Thanks, now where are you?" 

"I just finished book eight of Fantine and decided to start Cosette tomorrow," he told me.

I thumbed to Cosette and started "Book One Waterloo. What you see on the way from Nivellse." I read on to III of Waterloo when I saw that Loki had dozed off. 

Not really sure where he had fallen asleep I memorized where I left off. Loki didn't go under his covers, but he looked comfortable in his cotton green and black tunic. I hadn't noticed earlier that Loki had changed out of his leather outfit into something more suitable for sleep when I had came in. I was seated by his side with my back against the wall. Thor was still outside watching to see if I was going to come out. I set the book on the other side of me and was about to get up when all of the sudden I felt an arm come around my waist and cling onto me as if it was saying don't leave. I tried to pull Loki's arm away but his grip only got tighter. I then realized Loki was in a deep sleep and wasn't coming out of it and I wouldn't be able to pull him off of me. Thor stood up gave me a look as if to say do you want my help? I looked at Thor and shook my head no as if to say let Loki be he's been through enough tonight. Thor seemed content with my answer because he sat back down. With nothing much else to do I picked the book back up and started to read it again, but this time I wasn't doing it aloud.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I woke up to find I wasn't in my apartment. I didn't know my surroundings at all and it started to freak me out. When I turned on my side to see what had a hold of me around my waist everything came back to me. I gasped and covered my mouth when I realized I fell asleep by Loki's side while reading. I wasn't on the bed with him, yet my body had been close to his even if a mattress did separate Loki and I from the floor. I was able to get out of his hold and get out of his room. Thor was still on the couch watching the whole ordeal. I walked out of the room embarrassed and angry at myself for having fallen asleep by Loki's side. 

"Thor how could you allow me to fall asleep like that?" I asked in a harsh whisper.

"I meant no harm by it. My reason is simple I did not know how my brother would act if I was to intervene on the situation," Thor answered.

Though I didn't want to admit it Thor was right. If he had gone in there to wake me or to take me away from Loki things could have ended badly. Then I remembered something that both Thor and Loki had mentioned. That Loki's fit was not his first.

"Thor, you said that this has happened before. How many times has this happened since he's been here?" I questioned.

Thor crossed his arms and looked at Loki with concern as he spoke. "It started the first night he was here and it took me nearly the whole night to calm him. Last night after you left to go home he went mad again. When Loki started this night, Steve suggested that we fetch you to see if you might calm my brothers madness faster than I could. At first I did not wish to leave my brother's side, but the man with a shield had a good suggestion." 

I patted Thor on his shoulder and said "You did the right thing. Go get some rest. I'll stay here on the couch to make sure Loki's alright."

Thor picked up his hammer and went back to his room. I looked at Loki to see him still out before I closed my eyes once more. I got comfortable on the couch and went to sleep. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I woke up the next morning remembering where I was and checked on Loki to find him still sleeping so, I walked to the kitchen and smelled coffee brewing. Steve was sitting at the table reading the newspaper and drinking a cup of coffee. I turned on the oven for the casserole and then got a cup for myself and sat down to join Steve.

"Good morning Steve." I greeted.

Steve did a little surprised jolt in his chair realizing that I was in the room. "Good morning Cas."

"I'm sorry if I freaked you out just now," I apologized. 

"It's alright. I really get into the newspapers. I'm trying to catch up on things I missed on," he quipped. 

I chuckle and said "You might want to start a list to remember all of them you sure did miss out on a lot being frozen all those years."

Steve grinned and replied "That's a wonderful idea. Thank you. Oh, I called your family the other day to see if there's an open room to rent and there is. I'll be moving out of here in no time thanks to you."

"It's no problem really. I can understand not wanting to live in a basement of the place I work," I responded. 

"Well I think I'll stay until Loki leaves," Steve said.

"When will that be?" I asked.

"When my brother no longer screams in the night," Thor said as he walked into the room, making me nearly drop me cup in fright. "Good-Morrow Cassidy and Steve. I trust you both slept well?"

We both nodded our heads to the God as he poured himself a black cup of coffee. Odd that he likes and knows about coffee my mind said. The oven beeped as the preheating cycle finished, I got up from the table to put the casserole in hoping that the others would be there in time for it to still be warm. Having put it in and set a timer I sat back down at the table.

"You know what puzzles me, why is your brother having these episodes?" Steve queried.

"I gave it a thought and I think it might have something to do with the staff he had in his position" I stated my theory allowed. Thor and Steve gave me a perplexed look so, I went on. "I recall Bruce telling me that the scepter had an effect on him when he touched it only for a moment. Even I could feel the power in it, but it didn't affect me. My hypothesis is that it had some sort of control over Loki. When you took the staff away from him he went cold turkey."

"I don't understand what a bird has to do with this," said Steve confused.

"She's talking about people who get addicted to something and have it taken away. Like taking candy away from a baby." Tony told them as he entered the room with Pepper and Bruce. "What did we miss?"

"Loki had another breakdown" I answered. "I should start making the hollandaise sauce." 

"We didn't hear everything you had to say, but let me see if I can take a guess. Gollum is having a fight with Smeagol because his mind was corrupted by the one ring to rule them all," Tony summarized 

Salience followed that because poor Steve and Thor looked clueless to the reference. Steve might have known who Gollum was though, considering the Hobbit was first published in 1937, but didn't understand how Gollum and Smeagol were connected and that Bilbo's ring was forged to command Middle-Earth and the Lord of the Rings was published nearly 20 years later after The Hobbit. 

"It seems like a reasonable thesis. Now the question is how do we cure Loki?" asked Bruce.

I contemplated for a moment and turned away from the sauce to speak to Thor. "I know it must be hard seeing Loki go through it like this, but I have a feeling we should let him ride it out like any other addict.”

Thor agreed with me, but I could tell my answer wasn't what he wanted to hear. That's when Clint, Natasha, and Phil came in to join us. By the time I finished the sauce the oven went off and I served everyone and walked to the other room. Thor got up to follow me, but I didn't want anyone out there this time.

"You can clearly see the cage from this spot Thor. I don't think I need you to babysit me," I told him.

Thor moved his chair and sat down facing the other room. When I entered the jail Loki was already up and reading.


	8. Tomato Soup For The Broken Soul

Loki didn't say anything to me and I didn't want to start a conversation with him. I had a feeling that he knew I had slept by him for a while. I had piled the food on Loki's plate taking a guess that he would be very hungry from last night. My suspicions were right as he started to eat his food. He didn’t inhale it, but it was faster than usual. 

"Tell me Cassidy does it repulse you to think of last night?" He asked with a smirk on his face.

"No," I said flatly turning my face away to conceal my embarrassment.

He laughed maniacally and replied, "Do not lie to me you pathetic human. I can see it written on your face. You did not enjoy laying with me last night."

"How can you possibly know that? You were in a very deep sleep," I told him.

"You forget Cassidy I am the God of Mischief and Lies," he reminded. 

I gasped and anger came quickly. "You weren't asleep when you put your arm around me."

"I was, but I woke up when you left my side" he said with a coy smile.

"You must have found it disgusting that a paramecium such as myself touched you in that way." I replied with a little lip.

He chuckled and responded, "You may be a lower life form, but I wouldn't go as far to call you a single-celled freshwater animal." I was a little shocked that he didn't agree with my statement since I've heard what Loki has had to say about our race. He went on to say "Though I do not understand why. It seems that you have given me a pleasant night of sleep in a very long time. I would ask that you to stay tonight in case I have need you of you again."

"We shall see," I said getting up from the floor and leaving the cell with the plates.

As I passed the rectangular room I could see Loki pick the book back up and go back to reading. I joined the others to find the kitchen clean once again and Pepper gone. 

"Pepper told me to tell you that breakfast was wonderful and she's sorry she couldn't stay to tell you herself," Phil told me.

"Why would she tell you and not me?," Tony asked. 

"Because you don't give out compliments very often Tony" I answered.

The others chuckled in agreement. I wished no one had cleaned up for me. I needed to think about how I could help Loki get over his problem. I decided to do a mindless task of making a tomato soup from scratch to let it simmer until lunch time. Cooking and baking always cleared my mind.

"You know what this whole waiting around until Loki gets better thing is boring," Tony said. 

"Why don't you go build yourself a new suit then Stark, or help with the rebuilding of the city" I joked.

"I have a better idea. Why don't we train you how to fight?" he replied.

"I know how to fight." I snarled irritated.

"I think Tony's got a point," Natasha quipped putting her cup in the sink to be washed. I gave her a dirty look and she went on to say, "Hear me out Cassidy. We aren't saying you don't fight well for a cop, but compared to some of the other Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D you would be knocked out."

I sighed and questioned, "Fine who's my first teacher then?"

"Well considering goldie locks over here will be leaving soon I think you should start with him," Tony suggested pointing at Thor.

"Me?" Thor began pointing at himself. "I do not wish to hurt Cassidy."

"You've been fighting longer than any of us and I wouldn't mind seeing battle tactics from Asgard" Clint said with his hand on his chin standing in the corner of the kitchen.

"Looks like is all settled then isn't it. I think I'll just hang back here and make something to transport the Tesseract in. If it has the ability to alter one's mind then it would be safer contained," Bruce told us in his usual soft spoken manner.

"I'll stay with Bruce and help," Tony quipped.

"What about you Steve?" I questioned as we started to exit the room.

"I'm going to go start packing my room. I may not have much, but it's hard to carry around stuff when all you have a motorcycle," Steve said.

"We can use my car," Phil jumped up out of his chair and offered.

Steve nodded his thanks and we all went our separate ways. I turned the gas off the stove, so that t he soup wouldn’t burn while I was away and then I went with Clint, Thor, and Natasha to go one of the training rooms that they had for S.H.I.E.L.D Agents. Unfortunately, we had to ride the elevator, which didn't bother me as much as it first time. Compared to last nights flight this was piece of cake to get through. Let's hope I never have to do that again I said to myself as the elevator stopped and opened the doors. 

I did a gasp at how large the arena was. It had everything you could possibly imagine for proper training. Weapons, a full relay corse, shooting ranges, and a boxing ring. The room full of moving targets reminded me of the scene from The Hunger Games: Catching Fire where the contestants had holograms to fight against. The room was so big that I wouldn’t be surprised if someone were to tell me that this was all on one floor.

"This place tends to astound me every time I discover something new," I commented

"Defend yourself," Thor instructed me. 

I looked around the room and saw a round barrel of long training sticks I pulled one out and tossed it to Thor. He grabbed it in mid air of course and took a fight stance. I pulled out a stick for myself and did the same thing. 

"First you will learn how to block then you can learn how to fight," he instructed.

Thor came at me and started to swing. I ducked and blocked his assault. Thor looked impressed and then went for another position, which I blocked as well. At first Thor started out slow, but then he moved at a faster pace with every move that I could deflect, but when I missed one Natasha and Clint would give me pointer from the sidelines on what I should have used and how I should’ve blocked it. I could tell that they were also impressed with my skills, but they could also see room for improvement. 

"You fight well for a woman," Thor commented.

"Thanks, I have an older brother that likes to fight and teaches me stuff when he can." I said while trying to deflect another attack but missed, and the end of Thor’s stick hit me right in my stomach and made me lose my breath and fall over. 

"Are you alright Cassidy?" Thor asked in concern as he helped me up. 

"Yeah, just knocked the wind out of me that's all." I answered as I caught my breath again.

"I think that should be all for now Agent Martin," said Fury from the sidelines. "I would like a moment alone with Agent Martin."

I didn't even notice that Nick Fury had entered the room with us. Natasha, Thor, and Clint left the room leaving me alone with Director Fury. It made me feel a little uneasy being with this man and I wasn't sure if I would ever get use to it. I went over to the boxing ring and sat down on the edge of it to rest from the lesson I just got. 

"I heard that you were able to calm Loki down last night. I came to hear what your thoughts are on the matter. From my understanding Agent Coulson tells me that you have an interesting theory on the situation. I came down here to hear it myself and get a report which should have happened much sooner," he told me.

"What Agent Coulson told you is true Director Fury. I helped Loki last night. Steve thought it would be a good idea to get me, so Thor flew me over here. In a few minutes I was capable of bringing Loki back to himself. As for my thoughts, I think Loki is suffering from PTSD and it's like he is going through withdrawals, almost as if he is detoxing from the staff and the Tesseract. 

"How do you know about the Tesseract" Fury questioned a little angry.

"It's kinda hard not to know about it when it brought War of the Worlds upon us," I said in a sarcastic tone.

Fury half smiled looking amused at my comment and asked, "Do you plan on staying tonight?"

"I think it would be a foolish of me if I didn't, but I don't want Loki to know about it," I answered.

"And why is that Agent Martin" Fury said crossing his arms.

"If Loki knew then he might not have a melt down. You see it might give him some sort of comfort in knowing that I was there, so it's better to pretend I'm not," I replied.

"Hmmm you got a point, but I’m sure you can think of a way to make it look like you not staying. We have extra rooms for you to use, but this time I want a report of everything that happens in the room. Am I clear?" He queried in an authoritative tone. 

"Yes, Sir," I replied.

"Good you are dismissed" I was heading out the door when Fury called out "Agent Martin you no longer need supervision to be in the cell with Loki. I have been given reports that you handle yourself well with him."

"Thank you Director Fury," was all I could manage to say before I left. 

I went back down to the basement to finish up lunch. All I had to do was reheat the soup and make sure it was ready. It didn’t take long to finish it up, but no one was in the kitchen, so I started to make the grilled cheese sandwiches for everyone. I knew it was warm outside, but during spring you could still get away with soap on really cold days. 

"I've been smelling that almost all day" Tony said behind me with a spoon in his hands to taste the soup. I swatted his hand away, but Tony was too quick this time and put the spoon in his mouth and I watched his eyes go wide as he cursed "Jesus Christ that’s hot."

I laughed and said sarcastically "Since when is soup ever cold?"

"You need to watch what you say around people Stark." Steve chided coming in from the hall a little mad.

Tony rolled his eyes and said, "Oh good the the cussing Nazi has arrived."

Steve looked appalled and started to come at Tony like he was about to throw him across the room, but I balled my fist up and socked Tony in the arm myself. Steve stopped in his tracks taken aback by my actions. Tony turned to me and rubbing his arm giving me a look like what the hell did I do now.

His look really pissed me off and I yelled at Tony "You’re so fucking inconsiderate Stark! Calling Steve a Nazi!? Just think before you say things. Steve had to actually fight against those controlling pricks, you asshole."

Poor Bruce walked in not really sure what to make of what I just said. Steve gave me half a smile and Tony was still rubbing his arm.

"You weren't kidding when you told us that shortie over here had a good arm. I think she might have given me a bruise," Tony told Steve.

"I am 5'4 thank you very much which is just about average for a woman and I hope you get a bruise the size of your ego," I said sassily.

That broke the tension in the room and got everyone to laugh. 

Tony walked over to Steve and spoke. "Cas is right you know. People say that a lot now when there obsessive over something like turning off lights in a room. I didn't really consider what it meant to you when I said it."

"Like I said when I walked in watch what you say Stark," Steve replied.

I went back to making the grilled cheese for everyone. By the time I was finishing up the whole team had gathered around the table talking about what they had been doing during the morning. I had been serving food just as fast as I could make them, because who wants a cold grilled cheese sandwich? I was just about to finish the last one when the screaming started. Everyone dropped what they were doing and ran into the observation room to see why Loki going into another fit. I turned off the burner of the stove and followed after them. 

"Out of my way," I demanded pushing people as I ran into the cage, dropping to the floor sliding to Loki's side. "Damn, I thought this only happened at night." 

His face was turned away from me, but when he heard my voice his head snapped in the direction of my voice. Once again his eyes were ice cold blue.

"Get away from me you mewling quim," He yelled with a forceful push.

I landed so hard on the concert floor you could hear a thump as my butt hit the floor. Bruce left the room not wanting to go all green raging monster on us, but others started to grab weapons. 

I looked at Thor and screamed "Make them stay out of this. I know what I am doing."

Thor put his hand into the air and his hammer came flying out of the hallway into his hand. He took a stance and giving Clint, Natasha, Tony, and Phil a look as if to say try to get past me. Steve knew I could handle myself and stood by Thor's side. I then turned my attention back to Loki who had been clenching his mouth shut trying not to scream. Looking at him I knew that it wasn't Loki who had control over his mind, but something more sinister that we couldn't see. 

I got Loki's eyes to focus on mine and decided to be brave "Listen up you megalomaniac God. I don't know who you think you are and how you got a hold of Loki's mind, but let me tell you something. You picked the wrong race to mess with. We might look like the weakest, but we have more gumption than you anticipated and we will fight down to the last human and breath if we have to. We've seen and been through a lot worse and in the end it always makes us stronger and brings us together as one."

Loki forced my hands off his face and let out a crazed laugh "And who will stand by my side you prattling mortal? I am the monster that no one will aide."

I was still looking into his eyes when I said sympathetically,"We all have a monster inside us Loki. Even me."

“Leave me be!” Loki yelled.

Loki let out another chuckle before he screamed in pain and curled onto the floor in a ball. I got up and looked for the washcloth I had used the other night, so that I might wipe away his sweat. I was curious at what the other were doing outside of the room so I looked out to see them all just gawking at the scene. I had a feeling that some of them were really enjoying watching Loki in agony. I got the cloth and went back to the floor to wipe his head and brush Loki's loose strands of black hair away from his mouth. 

Loki sat up again to look at my with the azure eyes and said "You’re still here you worthless worm? Did I not order of your dismissal?"

I threw my hands up in the air to make it seem that whatever was posing Loki had won, but there was one more thing I wanted to try first. In order for it to work I had to let him think I was throwing in the towel. Loki smirked in triumph and I knew that was my opportune moment. I grabbed his face with my hands once again and pulled Loki in for a passionate kiss. Little did I know what that kiss would do to me. I felt giddy and my heart seemed to drop, but I buried my emotions as best as I could hoping that I wasn't showing my pleasure in kissing the handsome God. In the back of my mind I heard people drop stuff, gasp, and cough in discomfort, but I wasn't really paying attention. I put my attention back in my kiss. I could feel Loki's shock as he jerked underneath my touch. Then he tensed up, but he relaxed a little before once again pushing me away. Once he did Loki got up went to the sink and washed out his mouth. I just sat on the floor stunned at doing such a risky move. 

Once Loki was done he turned back to me with rage shaking his body and yelled "What right do you have touching such divinity you foul creature! Get away from me human!"

The last time I had heard that was from my ex-boyfriend, John Allerdyce. He had only called me that when I tried to convince him not to join Magneto. The words that Loki uttered and the way he said them brought even more painful memories of why I didn't trust men or get involved. 

I realized I just stood there gaping at Loki. Tears where threatening to spill out and I didn't want anyone to see tears especially the god of chaos in Loki’s mind. For some odd reason my body had a delayed reaction to the words and I slapped Loki right across the face. I could see rage and shook in his eyes as he took a step forward, but I ran out of the room pushing any one out of my way to be alone. The question that formed in my mind was “where could I go for absolute solitude”. The bathroom was the only place that came to my mind as I ran down the hall with tears streaming down my face. I ran into the bathroom and put myself in the corner. As I slid down the wall into a heap on the ground, my mind flashed back to the memories, the memories I had tried for so long to keep buried within me. The memories of a former life and of love lost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the movies of X-Men I think that John Allerdyce aka Pyro is in his late/mid teens, but for my fan-fiction I am making him more early/mid twenties or so. That way he matches roughly the same age as Cassidy which is about 28 or so.


	9. Things of the past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter Cassidy will be having a flashback of John Allerdyce and what happened between them.

The corner of the company bathroom may not be the best place to cry, but it was the first door I came across while fleeing from Loki’s cell. I didn't want to recall the past at all, but try as I might the memories were flooding back and try as I might I could hold them off no longer. Like the pounding of waves on the shore, the memories of love and loss hit me again and again, Finally giving in and letting the memories and pain wash over me as I was pulled into my past.

 

~~~~~FLASH BACK~~~~~~

 

It was early evening just after the sun had set, I was driving along the forest road that would lead me to Xavier's School for Gifted Youth. I was going to surprise John for his birthday, so when I got a call from my brother telling me that John was leaving the of X-Men to be with Magneto i was stunned.

 

“Cassidy, John's packing his bags ready to leave us. No of us can talk him out of it. You need to come down and see what you can do,” Greg told me.

 

“Alright I’m on my way be there soon,” I replied.

 

I speed up, pushing my car’s speed way past the legal limit, thank goodness there were hardly any police cruising this little forest road. I wanted to get there before John left. “Guess the surprise had really fallen onto me now,” I thought as I drove through the gate to the school. Greg was waiting for me outside.

 

“Man that was quicker than I expected,” Greg said.

 

“I was almost here when you called,” I began. “Is John still in his room?”

 

Before the words had even left my mouth I saw John storming out of the school.

 

"John, please tell me it isn't true?" I asked sadly trying to stop him from going any further. 

 

John stepped away from me as he pulled out a lighter from his jean pockets to control flames in the palm of his hands.

 

"Stay away from me Cassy," John demanded in a harsh voice.

 

Greg tried to come between us to protect me, but I told him, “Let me handle this you called me. John, please don't do this. I love you." I pleaded moving close to him again.

 

He laughed and said, "You’re beneath me. I hate your kind because they do nothing, but try and kill us."

 

"You know I don't think that John!" I raised my voice at him with tears threatening to spill out.

 

John shot two fireballs at me on either side. Greg pushed me out of harm's way and they missed us, but fell to the ground. Looking up into the eyes of the man I was in love with I saw nothing but hatred staring back at me and a cold fear washed over me. At that point I knew that the John was lost, the man I loved saw me only as something to hate. John was walking over to me with a fireball in his hands, but Greg stood in his way. John grabbed Greg by his neck and almost choking my brother to death.

 

“Stop it!” I screamed “Let him go, Please!”John dropped Greg and left him gagging for air, and walked over to me looming over me with fire still in his hands. 

 

"What right do you have talking to me? Get away from me human," he spat down at me as if it was a curse.

 

My breath hitched in shock and I started to sob. Never before had John said such hurtful words. I knew then that he was lost to me for ever and would want me dead. I pushed myself off of the ground still crying and stood to face him. I closed my eyes waiting for death to come and it didn't. Instead I heard footsteps going away from me. When I opened my eyes I saw John walking away from me into the darkness to meet up with his new team. After that Greg helped me up from the driveway and took me inside to comfort me.

 

~~~~~~~~~END OF FLASHBACK~~~~~~~~~~

 

I thought I heard footsteps outside the door. I wasn't sure who it was, but I held onto the handle bar for leverage and went over to lock the bathroom door thinking that I had done so when I ran in, but I wasn't fast enough as the door swung slowly open. I was a little astonished to see Tony there looking at me with a concerned face.

 

"Out of all the things reindeer games has said you let that one get to you?" He asked pulling out a handkerchief from his pocket.

 

I laughed still crying a little bit recalling how we first met and just turned away from him getting toilette-paper from the dispenser. I wiped my eyes, nose, and then forced myself to stop crying, because I hated to do that in front of people. 

 

"You know what?" he began after an awkward silence. "You got Elsa out there to lose his cool."

 

I chuckled and said, "Are you referring to Steve?"

 

Tony nodded his head and got real excited telling me what happened outside when I left the room. "He went in there and punched Loki in the jaw calling him an asshole. Which is the first cause word I’ve ever heard the guy use. When Steve left he found the muzzle and put it back on Loki’s big mouth, before he could say another word. Thor just stood there and let him do it too. It was a phenomenal!"

 

Curious I asked, "What about the others?"

 

Tony chuckled and answered, "We were all just too astounded by what Steve did that we just stood there dumbfounded. You should see Phil right now. He's as giddy as a school boy going abound talking about it as if we didn't just witness it for ourselves." He looked at me when he finished and said, "What I don't understand is why you got so emotional this time? He always says stupid things like that."

 

"It's a long story and I really don't like to talk about it. It's something from my past that I just want left there," I replied.

 

"Yeah, but I am Tony Stark and I know all of S.H.I.E.L.D's dirty laundry. What makes you think I can't break down the firewalls into your past?" He said smugly.

 

I was about to answer him when alarms went off. Tony and I looked at each other and ran out of the women's bathroom. Everyone was rushing to get their weapons. 

 

"What's going on?" I yelled at the team as they got ready for a fight.

 

"Unauthorized craft will be here in two minutes," said a computer voice.

 

I ran into the science room and grabbed one of the Chitauri guns that we had and ran out through the doors, into the tunnel. As I was putting it on and powering it up Tony flew past me in his Iron Man suit. The only person I didn’t see with the group was Bruce I guessed he wanted to stay away from the whole Loki problem. I ran out of the tunnel into the sunlight squinting my eyes to see a familiar black plane start to land. Iron Man hit his thrusters to meet the jet and aimed his blasters at it. I ran into the path of fire holding my weapon, so he wouldn't shoot. 

 

"Damn it Cassidy do you want me to kill you?" he questioned from behind the mask.

 

"Lower your weapons," I ordered at everyone. 

 

No one did as I said they just gawked at me standing in the way. Even Bruce who had heard the alarm and came running ready to turn into the Hulk.

 

"No!" I screamed at him. "These are friends of mine you don't need to go all Avengers on their ass," I replied, standing my ground.

 

Thankfully as the jet landed the door slid open to reveal someone standing just inside the door. I turned my face towards the tall average built man with a bald head and light green reptile looking skin in a black suit exiting the X-Men plane. His hands were up, raised as if surrendering. Two other men wearing similar suits walked out behind him. One had long brown hair sticking out on either side of his head and the other had short brown spiky hair and a scruffy short beard.

 

"We, come, in, peace. We, mean, you, no, harm," the green one said in a slightly robotic voice jokingly.

 

Still no one was lowering their weapons. Clint had his bow and arrow out ready to shoot, Thor looked like he wanted to summon lighting, Natasha and Phil had S.H.I.E.L.D guns out and ready, and Tony still looked like he was going to vaporize them any minute. As for Bruce, he looked like he wanted to let the Hulk lose, but wanted to listen why I was so intent on keeping these people safe. 

 

"What the hell is going on out here. And why is there an X-Men plane on my base?" asked Fury waking up with a large gun at his side. "Agent Martin care to explain why you’re protecting these mutants?"

 

I shot Fury an evil glare and snapped back, "Do you mind not calling them that. They have feelings you know."

 

Two of the three guys from the jet chuckled while the other one just lingered in the doorway staring at Captain America and Nick Fury. I could see that there was a past and a story there I wondered what the connection was, but knew I could ask that later. Right now I needed to explain our unexpected visit before there was an Avengers vs X-Men fight and I would be stuck in the middle.

 

I pointed at the bald one with green skin and said "This is my brother Greg. He has a gift and goes to a special school with Bobby and Logan." I explained pointing to the one with short hair and then the one who kept staring at Nick.

 

"Whoa whoa whoa. Wait a minute," Tony said pulling off his mask to talk and gesturing a time-out signal. "Your brother is a mutant? What his ability really dry skin?"

 

I shot Tony a glare, but Greg just huffed at him and leaned up against the plane to camouflage himself against it. "I can blend into any back-round smart-ass," he replied irritated.

 

Fury just folded his arms and responded, "That still doesn't explain why you had to come onto private property."

 

My brother just glared at him back clearly not liking my new boss. "I over heard the Professor talking to Beast about Cassidy. Beast said that he had found out my sister quit her job to go work for S.H.I.E.L.D. I wanted to make sure she wasn't in any danger with the people who wreaked half of New York City while trying to save it."

 

"Look who's talking," Tony mocked.

 

"You know what Stark? I think we saved city's more times then you," Greg spat out looking annoyed.

 

"Whoop-de-fucking-de-due just the other day I saved the world Rumpelstiltskin," Tony said in his usual smug way.

 

Greg balled up his fist ready to fight because he recognized the T.V show reference from Once Upon a Time. I jumped off of the aircraft to hold my brother back from doing something stupid. Logan stood in front of Tony giving him a I dare you to move kid look and Bobby looked ready to cool Greg down with his powers.

 

"Back off Greg" I ordered pushing into him. "I know Stark can be a real jerk sometimes, but once you get past all the armor he's a real softy."

 

That seemed to break the tension in the air as everyone lowered there weapons once again and Greg calmed down and half smiled at me.

 

"I can understand why you’re here Mr. Martin, but I don't see why the extra calvary is necessary" Fury told him clearly still mad.

 

"I saw Iggy and Iceman here heading to the bunker where we keep the jet and knew they where up to something against school policy. I am not one for following rules, so I followed them," Logan explained as he stepped forward. 

 

Fury nodded at Logan and gave him a cold stare as he said "Funny how you turned me down, yet I see that you joined someone else anyways."

Logan, gave him a shrug and a look that said I don't care. My mind clicked realizing that Nick Fury asked Wolverine to join the Avengers and Logon turned him down. Steve got closer to Logan giving him a confused look.

 

"Hello Captain. It's been a few decades," Logan greeted looking back at Steve.

 

Steve hung his mouth open and made it pop as it dawned on him, "I fought with you in the war. How do you still look the same?"

 

Logan didn't answer him just raised his fist up to his face and pushing out the blades as a reply and then sliding them back in. Poor Steve took a step back completely stunned and freaked out making the connection that it has something to do with Logan's abilities.

 

Steve found his voice, but you could tell it had a hint of unbelief still in it. "Director Fury, I can't really vouch for the other two, but I trust Officer James Howlett."

 

I wasn't sure, but I could tell by Logan's reaction that James Howlett was his real name, by the way he shifted and looked uncomfortable. 

 

"As long as they don't get in my building they can stay and visit with you Agent Martin," Fury told me in his serious voice. He gave one last glare."You will not let this happen again" and then stormed off back into headquarters.

 

"Jeez, looks like Iceman needs to cool his jets" Greg joked.

 

Bobby was not amused by the remark and smacked him across the head.

 

"What's with all the pet names?" Asked Tony still in his suit.

 

Greg shot a shut-up before I kick your ass look to Tony and replied a little annoyed "They’re not pet names more like code names Cyberman."

 

Bobby and I laughed at the Doctor Who reference, which no one else seemed to understand, but that didn't matter. 

 

I decided that was a good time as any to make introductions to the Avengers and X-Men. I started with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Natasha, Clint, and Phil. Then I moved onto the team Thor, Tony, and Bruce. When I was done Greg gave me a look that said you want to talk? I just stood there and said nothing.

 

Still seeing that something was wrong Greg asked, "Damn it Cas, why won't you tell me what's bugging you? I can always tell when you've been crying even if it has been awhile since we’ve seen each other."

 

Bobby looked into my eyes and with a concerned look. I was accepted by Bobby like a sister and I could tell that even he was worried about me too.

 

"I'm fine," I told them.

 

"If you want to call being put into a cage with a psychopath fine then go right a head," Logan quipped crossing his arms with a stare that said give me a break.

 

"How can you possibly know that?" Natasha questioned a little flabbergasted.

 

"I can smell him on her and made a wild accusation based on the current mess you guys made,” Logan began. “Looks like my guess was correct.” 

 

Bruce scoffed and replied, "I told you that he smelled like a bag of crazy cats."

 

Greg looked angry like he wanted to go in and find the guy to teach him a lesson. Steve saw the look and said "Don't worry I punched the asshole for you and muzzled the ungrateful jerk." Everyone snapped their heads to look at Cap. 

 

Even Logan stood with his mouth gaping open. "I never thought I would hear a cuss word uttered by Rogers," Logan responded a little impressed.

 

"Well that's what he is after all that he's done and then going around saying callous things to Cassidy all the time when she's just trying to help him," Steve sounded angry enough to punch him all over again.

 

I patted Steve on the shoulder and told him, "It isn't Loki's fault. I over reacted because it brought back painful memories. Must of what he says I ignore, but this time it opened old wounds."

 

By the way I had said old wounds Bobby and Greg's eyes went wide with pain because somehow they knew what scars I was referring to. Greg came up to hug me, but I stepped away from it knowing that I might break down again. 

 

"So when are we going to hear what almost everyone else seems to know except for me?"Tony asked gesturing a finger to himself. “I think we got a right to know what she’s talking about don’t you?”

 

"For once I think you let this one be Tony," Bruce answered.

 

"No, Tony's right and if I don't tell you S.H.I.E.L.D will find out one way or another." 

 

I sighed and explained "John was an X-Men that went to the school for the gifted, just like Greg. The came up with the codename Pyro because he had the capability to wield fire. As my brother went to school there I would visit Greg a lot. John seemed to have a thing for me and pursued me until I went out with him. It got pretty serious between us even though he would go around campus trying to impress the girls with his skills, but that was just Pyro's personality and I loved that about him." I then went on to tell them about my earlier flashback. "The last I heard John was lost in the battle of Alcatraz and died when the Phoenix went all nuclear bomb." 

 

When I was done Thor was the first to break the silence that followed. "That is why you have taken my brother into your responsibility. You think you might be able to change Loki where you failed to alter the one you loved and lost."

 

I took a step back as it finally registered in my mind the other reason I was determined to help Loki. I felt guilty for not trying harder with John and accountable for his death. What shocked me more was the fact the it was Thor who saw it..

 

Bobby put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed it sympathetically and looked at me with his blue eyes. "I sometimes blame myself too." He then embraced me and I realized I was crying a little bit again. I pulled myself out of the hug and wiped away my tears with the sides of my shirt.

 

Greg then looked at his watch and said "We should get back before they come looking for us. If you need anything you have my number." Greg hugged me tight and went back into the X-Jet. Logan and Bobby followed after him and then they flew off.

 

I walked back to the science room and replaced the Chitauri weapon, and Tony and Bruce went back to work on a device that could take Thor and Loki home. As far as I could see they weren't getting very far with the project. Having no urge to see Loki at all I had Tony darken the windows so Loki couldn’t see in and I couldn’t see out. I stayed with Bruce and Tony to see if I might be of use for a while before the night ended and I had to stay here. I knew that people would protest after what happened today, but I was determined now more than ever to get the demons out of Loki's mind.


End file.
